St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s relics at Cathedral Oct 22, 2025 @ 7:00 am - 1:00 pm

One hundred years after the canonization of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, her “story of a soul” is coming to Oakland in powerful form.

Saint Thérèse visits the Diocese of Oakland on Oct 22

The relics of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face will travel the U.S. this fall. The reliquary containing some of her bones first came from France to the U.S. in 1999 and drew more than 1 million people in 25 states.

Now, 25 years later, it is a special blessing that the reliquary will be visiting the U.S. during the 100th anniversary year of her canonization and for the Jubilee Year of Hope.

According to the tour’s U.S. coordinator, Father Donald Kinney, a Discalced Carmelite priest at the Carmelite House of Prayer in California, the relics will travel to 11 states, making 40 stops. He noted that the saint herself wrote in her autobiography, “Story of a Soul,”: “I would like to travel over the whole earth to preach the Gospel.”

“There have been great crowds and great blessings everywhere,” Father Kinney says. “Such continued worldwide acclaim is unprecedented in the history of the Church.  Saint Thérèse continues to be loved as ‘the greatest saint of modern times.”

On Wednesday, October 22 from 7AM to 11AM, the relics of Saint Thérèse will be displayed for public veneration here at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, her only stop here in the Diocese of Oakland. Masses are scheduled at 8AM, 9AM and 10AM at the mausoleum level, with Bishop Michael Barber, SJ celebrating the 11:30AM Solemn Mass at the Cathedral.

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