THÉRÈSE OF ST AUGUSTINE, VENERABLE. — Discalced Carmelite, better known by the name MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE, daughter of Louis XV and of Maria Leczinska, born at Versailles on 15 July 1737, died at Saint-Denis on 23 November 1787.
She was taken as a child to the abbey of Fontevrault and educated in piety and learning. She returned to court in 1750, devoting herself, in contrast to her father’s way of life, to prayer and works of charity. In 1770 she entered the Discalced Carmel of Saint-Denis, where she professed on 12 September 1771, immolating herself in sacrifice and penance for the conversion of her father, who, after thirty years’ estrangement from the sacraments, died a good Christian in 1774. For many years she was zealous in promoting the total observance of the Rule, devoted to the Pope and to the Church, whose apostle she made herself among all to combat the triumphant Gallicanism. The granting of civil status to Protestants in 1787 was the blow that shattered the life of this daughter of the Church. Pius IX signed on 19 June 1873 the commission for the introduction of her beatification cause.
Her spiritual writings were published posthumously: Méditations Eucharistiques (Paris 1789, Lyons 1810, Paris 1879), Recueil des testamentis spirituels à ses filles religieuses carmélites (Autun 1856).
Valentino di Maria