SofC

St. Therese was very interested in the martyrdom of Theophane Venard. She wanted to go as a missionary to the Carmelite monastery in Hanoi, but she was already suffering from tuberculosis. She never went to the foreign missions, but she is now the patron saint of all missionaries.

Saint Théophane Vénard ou Jean-Théophane Vénard, né à Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet près de Poitiers en 1829, décapité au Tonkin le 2 février 1861, est un missionnaire français canonisé en 1988, fêté le 2 février.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9ophane_V%C3%A9nard

French martyr who inspired St. Therese of Lisieux

Famous for having inspired St. Therese of Lisieux, who said of St. Jean-Théophane that he was someone who had lived her own image of a martyr and missionary, St. Jean was born in France, became a priest in the Society of Foreign Missions, and was sent to Vietnam.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/french_martyr_who_inspired_st._therese_of_lisieux_to_be_honored_nov._6/

Thank you, tu_es_Petrus for this information!

St. Therese of Child Jesus had a devotion to him. I believe his story was at least in part responsible for her dream of being a missionary martyr.

Saint Jean-Théophane Vénard, M.E.P. (born at Saint-Loup-sur-Thouet, Diocese of Poitiers, France, November 21, 1829; died in Tonkin, Vietnam, February 2, 1861) was a French Catholic missionary to Indo-China. He was a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. He was beatified in company with thirty-three other Catholic martyrs, most of whom were natives of Tonkin, Cochin-China, or China. Pope John Paul II canonized him, with nineteen other martyrs, in 1988.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3 … [More]