A statue of St. Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower," was blessed recently at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe by Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore.
The "intercession of St. Therese of Lisieux" is the third of six shrines that will eventually take their places in the alcoves surrounding the worship area.
The work was completed by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz and memorialized by James and Beulah Grilliot of Syracuse and their family.
The sculpture depicts St. Therese writing in a journal, her words appearing like angels flowing upward into heaven, which is depicted by a large rose.
With the Grilliot family gathered around the sculpture, Bishop Gilmore said that St. Therese became a "living portrait of Jesus Christ," and that with the sculpture "we have a reminder that she still prays for us."
St. Therese of Lisieux was born in France in 1873, and entered Carmelite order at age 15. She died in 1897 at age 24 and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
During her brief and deeply devout life, St. Therese filled the pages of her journals with words espousing a "poverty of spirit" in which she "aspired to be nothing more than a poor little child who looks to her Father for everything . ..."
Beulah Grilliot is the eighth of nine children and the first to be born after her parents converted to Catholicism. With a devotion to the "Little Flower," they gave Beulah the middle name of Therese, who then passed on the name to her oldest daughter. They have five children, 16 grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. They are expecting twin great grandsons in May.
