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The Relics of St Thérèse in Kells

Council 112

7 November 2026

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Six men stand on the sanctuary steps of a bright church, five of them in blue tabards with a gold cross. Before them a table holds a red-lined glass reliquary, and below it a framed portrait of St Thérèse as a Carmelite nun with her parents. Vases of red roses stand either side.

The relics of St Thérèse and of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin in St Columcille's Church, Kells, with Brothers of CK112, 7 and 8 November 2026.

On the weekend of 7 and 8 November 2026, the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux and of her parents, Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, came to St Columcille's Church in Kells. The Sweeney family brought them for the weekend Masses, and the Brothers of CK112 Kells helped to host the visit.

A glass case lined in red, on a wooden stand, holds two reliquaries, one gold and one silver, either side of an image of St Thérèse, among pink and white roses, before the altar of a bright church.
The reliquary of St Thérèse and of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin

Veneration after Mass

The relics were placed before the sanctuary, with a portrait of the Martin family, and after each of the weekend Masses, at 6.30pm, 9.30am and 12 noon, people queued to venerate them.

Looking up the central aisle of a long church with a coffered ceiling, four people stand at the front before the relics, with the altar, a large round stained-glass window and a crucifix beyond. Two Brothers in blue tabards sit in the front pew on the right.
Venerating the relics after Mass in St Columcille's Church

St Thérèse and her parents

Thérèse Martin entered the Carmel of Lisieux at fifteen and died there in 1897, at twenty-four. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, made her little way of trust and love known across the world. She was canonised in 1925 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1997. Her parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, were married in Alençon, in Normandy, in 1858. Pope Francis canonised them together on 18 October 2015, the first married couple to be canonised together.

Three men in blue tabards with a gold cross stand at the sanctuary steps of a church around a glass reliquary on a wooden stand, with an ornate altar rail and a round stained-glass window behind them.
Brothers of CK112 Kells with the relics

Our thanks

Our thanks to the Sweeney family for bringing the relics to Kells, to the Brothers of CK112, and to all who came to pray. St Thérèse, Saints Louis and Zélie, pray for us.

Photographs: CK112 Kells.

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