At Notre-Dame des Victoires

During her pilgrimage to Rome, St Therese of Lisieux experienced Mary’s faithful tenderness, through Notre-Dame des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories): "The graces that she granted to me moved me so deeply and I was so happy, I cried like on the day of my First Communion. The Blessed Virgin led me to believe that it was really she herself who had smiled at me and had cured me. I understood that she had been watching over me, that I was her child, so much so that I could only call her “Mommy” because that name seemed to me so much tenderer than that of “Mother”. With what enthusiasm did I pray her to always keep me with her and to fulfill my dream by hiding me under her virginal cloak! Ah! This was one of my first desires as a child (...) as I grew older, I understood that it would be possible for me to find the Blessed Virgin’s cloak in the Carmel Convent and from that moment on all my desires were directed towards that fertile mountain."