Lisieux: The Basilica of Saint Thérèse, Her Carmel and Les Buissonnets
Normandy, France
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1 day
Lisieux: The Basilica of Saint Thérèse, Her Carmel and Les Buissonnets
200 + 100 XP
Thérèse Martin was four when her mother died and the family moved from Alençon to Lisieux, to the house of Les Buissonnets that her uncle Isidore Guérin had found for them. She entered the town's Carmel at fifteen in 1888, having gone to Rome to ask Leo XIII for a dispensation because of her age, and died there of tuberculosis on 30 September 1897 at twenty-four; she was beatified in 1923 and canonised in 1925. To take in the pilgrims, the neo-Byzantine basilica of Sainte-Thérèse, inspired by the Sacré-Cœur of Montmartre, was begun on a hill at the edge of town on 30 September 1929 and consecrated on 11 July 1954, paid for entirely by donations from around the world. Lisieux is now the second pilgrimage town in France after Lourdes.
Required Activities
1
of 5
Stand under the 97 m dome of the basilica, 28 m across and carrying a single-block cross of 1.70 m weighing close to a tonne, then look at how completely Pierre Gaudin's mosaics cover the inside — and remember that the war took two thirds of Lisieux and probably spared this building only because it was built out at the edge of town
2
of 5
In the chapel of the Carmel, find the reliquary holding Thérèse's remains — the relics have been taken on tour to some sixty countries — and work out the span of her enclosed life from it: nine years behind this wall, from fifteen to twenty-four
3
of 5
At Les Buissonnets, go to the far end of the garden where Thérèse and her cousin Marie Guérin invented their game of living as hermits in silence, then find her own account of the house inside: the austere years she called the most painful of the three periods of her life
4
of 5
Walk down into the town to the cathedral of Saint-Pierre, where the Martins went to mass every Sunday and met the Guérin cousins afterwards, and work out the route Thérèse walked from Les Buissonnets to get there
5
of 5
In the south transept, find the monumental ciborium holding the reliquary Pope Pius XI gave the basilica, railed off on its high plinth, then go out behind the apse for the stations of the cross and look back at the campanile standing clear of the church
Stand under the 97 m dome of the basilica, 28 m across and carrying a single-block cross of 1.70 m weighing close to a tonne, then look at how completely Pierre Gaudin's mosaics cover the inside — and remember that the war took two thirds of Lisieux and probably spared this building only because it was built out at the edge of town
In the chapel of the Carmel, find the reliquary holding Thérèse's remains — the relics have been taken on tour to some sixty countries — and work out the span of her enclosed life from it: nine years behind this wall, from fifteen to twenty-four
At Les Buissonnets, go to the far end of the garden where Thérèse and her cousin Marie Guérin invented their game of living as hermits in silence, then find her own account of the house inside: the austere years she called the most painful of the three periods of her life
Walk down into the town to the cathedral of Saint-Pierre, where the Martins went to mass every Sunday and met the Guérin cousins afterwards, and work out the route Thérèse walked from Les Buissonnets to get there
In the south transept, find the monumental ciborium holding the reliquary Pope Pius XI gave the basilica, railed off on its high plinth, then go out behind the apse for the stations of the cross and look back at the campanile standing clear of the church
Before you go
This is a live pilgrimage site taking somewhere between 600,000 and a million visitors a year. Expect crowds, processions and closed areas around the feast of Thérèse at the start of October and on major pilgrimage weekends.
The Carmel is an enclosed convent: only the chapel is open to the public, and it closes during the nuns' offices.
Les Buissonnets is a ticketed house museum with a closing season in winter and set visiting times — check before walking up.
The basilica is on a hill at the edge of town and the Carmel and Les Buissonnets are down in it, about a kilometre and a half apart. There is parking at the basilica; the walk between the three sites is uphill one way.
Modest dress is expected in the basilica and the Carmel chapel, and photography is restricted during services.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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