Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
In Praise of Leonie Martin

In Praise of Leonie Martin

Last updated on: October 1, 2021 at 11:06 pm by Mary Pezzulo

In Praise of Leonie Martin 2021-10-01T23:06:55-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Saint Therese is a wonderful saint, though she’s not someone I feel very close to.

I’m sure that her mother and father are wonderful saints, though they make me nervous sometimes. I’m sure all her talented and prayerful older sisters will be declared saints someday. But do you know who I really love?

I love Therese’s despised, abused, misfit sister, the disappointment of the family, Leonie Martin.

Leonie was the middle child; she was known as the Lame Duck and the Bleating Sheep, names I’d like to use on myself. It pains me to know that her illustrious, saintly sisters called her names. Maybe they didn’t think they were hurtful. Leonie had whooping cough and measles as a baby, which might have affected her brain. She also suffered from severe eczema for more than a year. She was teased by the people around her for looking unattractive and for having a Provincial accent which the rest of her family didn’t share, and for not being able to read along with prayers in the Breviary. The other Martins were obedient and did well in school, but Leonie was a mess. She had meltdowns and tantrums that got her expelled several times. We probably would have said that she had an intellectual disability, if she’d lived today, but those weren’t recognized in the 1860s, so she was punished relentlessly.

Perhaps Leonie was on the autism spectrum as well. Autism isn’t a disability in the same way, but it’s a difference that can be disabling and can cause meltdowns like she experienced. And it’s a difference that can be deeply misunderstood and lead to punishments and expulsions instead of leading to caregivers listening and communicating better. Many disabled children and many autistic children have had academic careers like Leonie’s.

“The poor child has plenty of faults,” wrote her mother, which makes me ball my fist in rage. No, Saint Zelie, your daughter didn’t have “faults,” she was disabled and she was different. You couldn’t recognize that she was disabled and different, because you were ignorant and your other children were so prim. Like so many disabled children through the ages, Leonie was blamed and punished for her disability instead of getting help.

Of course, one of Leonie’s problems was probably post-traumatic stress disorder. It was eventually realized that one of the household servants at the Martin household had been beating Leonie behind Zelie’s back, and verbally abusing her as well. The maid mentally tortured the little girl so that Leonie would obey her, in an attempt to seem important to the gullible Saint Zelie who was dying by inches of breast cancer. Eventually, the maid got caught, but that’s not the kind of thing a disabled child can easily heal from. Many people with disabilities get preyed on by abusers in just this way. They suffer the wounds from this treatment their entire lives.

Saint Zelie started out by being harsh with her misfit child, perhaps because she was brought up herself and was probably made to think that she ought to be harsh. But when harshness didn’t work she tried gentleness, and that worked much better. Then she died, leaving Leonie motherless at the age of fourteen.

The younger Martin children chose the elder daughters, Marie and Pauline, for their special surrogate mothers. They didn’t choose Leonie.

The other Martins all ended up in the same Carmelite convent one by one, along with their cousin, but Leonie didn’t get in. Carmel didn’t want her. She and her sister Celine stayed home and cared for their father, Saint Louis Martin, as he wasted away from dementia. He was eventually locked up in a mental hospital, which were human rights nightmares at that time in history. Saint Louis’s abused and disabled daughter took the train to visit him in that terrible place every week until his death. Then Celine entered the Carmel, and Leonie was left completely alone.

It took several tries for Leonie to enter a convent; she was rejected time and again, for one reason or another. Nobody seemed to like her for a terribly long time. She wrote cordial letters to her sisters, but I wonder if part of her was relieved to not be near them anymore. I’ve had to find out for myself that estrangement from a family that won’t understand you and doesn’t like you can be a blessing in disguise.

Finally, she ended up in the convent of the Visitation, where she remained until her death in 1941.

In the convent, Leonie was often sickly. She still struggled with eczema on and off. But she was happy there, and patient and kind with her fellow sisters. She was one of the first people to follow Saint Therese’s advice from Story of a Soul. Truthfully, though, I wish Leonie had written a book herself. That’s something I would far rather read than Therese’s writings. Leonie had nothing, was lonely and despised by everyone, and still found sanctity and peace.

I suppose the book we should all read with attention was her life: abused, humiliated, disliked, disabled, lonely, called names and treated harshly even by saints, rejected from convents, visiting her father in the mad house, somehow finding peace in it all, and Divine grace radiating everywhere in spite of and through the suffering.

Leonie’s cause for canonization was officially opened in 2015, eighteen years after her younger sister was made a Doctor of the Church and the same year her parents were canonized saints. I remember her as the patron saint of Autism, of disability, of people who are at odds with their families, of people whose parents couldn’t prevent their abuse.

Leonie is my favorite Martin sister, the only one I can hope to be like.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.

Here’s to you, Leonie, bleating black sheep of the Martin family.

You were the best of all.

image via pixabay

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.
Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Abuse

Public face of Catholicism

Venerable Leonie Martin

Visitation

Previous Post

October 1, 2021

I Apologize For The Apologist

Next Post

October 5, 2021 On the Homeless Person Picked Up By A Bulldozer

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian holiday celebrates the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Advent Trinity Sunday Pentecost Epiphany