The grocery stores are brimming with cards heralding the arrival of Valentine’s Day. Many cards speak of romantic love, but there is another kind of affection rarely mentioned in our society. It is the chaste love linking men and women as spiritual brothers and sisters, a bond anchored in prayer and faith in Christ. 

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus shared this spiritual connection with a missionary priest, Father Adolphe Roulland. Born in 1873, she had entered the Carmelite cloister in Lisieux, France, at the tender age of 15 with the hope of becoming a missionary. Much to her disappointment, her poor health dashed this dream, but she then set her heart on praying for missionary priests. She had already been praying for one seminarian when God sent her a second spiritual brother, Adolphe Roulland, who would soon travel to China. 

Their friendship began in 1896, after Roulland, a seminarian, asked the mother superior at the monastery to select a sister, who would pray especially for him and his apostolate, and she chose Thérèse. In her first letter to him, Thérèse asked for a special favor, namely, that when he celebrated his first Mass, he would “ask Jesus to set me on fire with His Love, so I may enkindle it in hearts.” Roulland wholeheartedly agreed and promised to say this prayer at every Mass he offered for the rest of his life. 

After he was ordained, Father Roulland wrote to the mother superior to request permission to offer his first Mass at the monastery.

“It would be a real joy for me to give Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus the God of the Eucharist, the beloved Lord Jesus,” he said. 

This wondrous event happened in early July, when he celebrated his first Mass with Thérèse assisting as sacristan. He was able to spend a few minutes talking with her, and although neither of them realized it, this would be their one and only meeting. 

Father Roulland was overjoyed to have a sister praying for him. Before leaving for China, he wrote, “I know our apostolate, that is, yours and mine, will be blessed by God.”

He took comfort in the knowledge that on the mountain of Carmel, she would be praying for his missionary efforts. He addressed her as “my little sister in Jesus,” while she called him “the brother of my soul.” 

In one letter, his little sister told him about her own vocation, a story included in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul. Thérèse had dearly wanted to enter the cloistered monastery when she was 15, but the rules stated she had to be 21. She was so determined to become a sister that she went on a pilgrimage to Rome and sought the assistance of Pope Leo XIII. In a humorous tone, she asked Father Roulland, “No doubt you don’t know that your sister had the audacity to speak to the Pope?” 

A remarkable event connected Father Roulland and Thérèse before they had ever met. It seems that, on Sept. 8, 1890, he had been having serious reservations about entering the seminary. Then, as he prayed, his doubts suddenly disappeared and he reached a decision that he would indeed become a priest. This was the same date on which Therese professed her vows and became a Carmelite nun. It was on this date that she prayed fervently for God to send her a priest to pray for. 

After being in China for about a year, Father Roulland almost died from a serious illness. Writing to his spiritual sister, his reaction to suffering was selfless and exquisitely Christlike: “We must not ask that I not suffer, but that I know how to suffer.” Like Thérèse, he knew that suffering could be offered as a prayer to help others. 

He also described the tragedies of famine, especially devastating for families who could no longer feed their children. It was dangerous for him to live there, he told her, and her prayers were more important than ever. Evidently, hunger was leading people to take desperate measures, and crime was rampant. As he expressed fear for his life, his words underscored the supernatural quality of the bond they shared: “If the bandits kill me, and if I am not worthy to enter heaven immediately, you will draw me out of purgatory and I shall go to await you in paradise.”

Thérèse had been suffering terribly from tuberculosis for many months, but she never complained in her letters. She did, however, refer to her future death, saying something that might puzzle us, since we generally regard purgatory as a place to exit quickly. This humble sister told Father Roulland he needn’t pray for her after her death. You see, she wanted to remain in purgatory so she could offer up her suffering to help more people get to heaven. 

Writing her very last letter on July 14, 1897, Thérèse knew death was near. She revealed she could no longer eat solid foods and was living only on milk. She wrote, “soon I shall quench my thirst at the waters of eternal life.” 

Since Father Roulland was facing a dangerous situation in China, she realized he might be martyred. To encourage him, she wrote, “I shall be near you, holding your hand, so that you may gather up this glorious palm without effort.” She signed the letter, “your little sister for eternity.” 

Thérèse died on Sept. 30, 1897, but the news didn’t reach Father Roulland for a few months. In his last letter, unknowingly written after her death, he told her joyfully that many people were converting to Catholicism. He also reflected on the possibility of his own death and expressed sorrow over leaving her to carry her crosses alone. 

In a moment of tragic irony, he wrote, “Do not forget that you are my younger sister; I must die before you.” He closed with “Au revoir, in the hearts of Jesus and Mary.” 

Is there any deeper, more beautiful bond than the love this gentle sister and the missionary priest shared? Two people united in friendship and prayer, helping each other bear their crosses and working together for the glory of God. A spiritual brother and sister, hoping to meet each other in paradise! It is hard to imagine a more magnificent and miraculous love than one deepened by prayer and anchored in Jesus.