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ZELIE

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IT SEEMED TO ME that my Belgian Malinois, Ginger, was lonesome and needed some canine companionship.  My first dog, Skippy, acquired when I was seven years old was my faithful companion during my pre-adolescent and adolescent years.  Skippy was a mixed-breed dog, mostly Fox Terrier.  I have always had a special love for terriers and readers of Father J. Patrick Serna’s Facebook page know that his little Rat Terrier, Rambo, and I have had a love affair going strong ever since Rambo joined Father Serna’s household.

Father Patrick would bring Rambo to visit me every time he came to see me and if you happened to view Father’s Facebook page from time to time you saw the many photos Father Patrick took of Rambo crawling all over me, especially my head.  Lately Father Patrick has stopped bringing Rambo to visit me because of the pressure of his pastoral duties as Pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sinton, Texas.

During the 1990’s I, along with millions of others, young in heart if not in age, watched the antics of Wishbone (real name Soccer) on the PBS series of the same name.  Wishbone was a Jack Russell Terrier.  Last week, during a visit by Father Patrick (without Rambo) I told him that I wanted a Jack Russell Terrier to be a companion for Ginger (that was a half-truth since I really wanted the dog to be my companion) and Father Patrick responded that he would find a Jack Russell Terrier within 48 hours.  Being the miracle worker that he is, he did what he promised.

Father located a Jack Russell Kennel owned by the Amish community near Beeville, Texas and he bought the only female puppy (I had stated that the dog had to be a female, like Ginger) and brought the puppy to me on October 1st, the Feast of Saint Therese the Little Flower.

I decided that the puppy should be given a name associated with Saint Therese.  Father Patrick suggested:  Therese or Flower, but I thought the name should be short, preferably having just two syllables.

I remembered that Saint Therese’s mother was  Blessed Azelie-Marie Guerin Martin, wife of Blessed Louis Martin.  Azelie-Marie was know to her family simply as “Zelie.”  There, I had found the name for the puppy.

Louis and Zelie Martin were truly a remarkable couple with deep spiritual lives.  When they were married they decided that they would live together as brother and sister, that is, they would refrain from having sexual relations.  Their confessor however felt that God wanted them to have children and so he advised against their living together as brother and sister.  Being open to the spiritual direction of their confessor the Martins changed their minds about living as brother and sister.

Louis and Zelie had nine children.  Three of the children died in their infancy and a fourth died at five years of age.  The surviving five children, all girls, eventually entered religious life and Saint Therese was one of the five.

Because Louis and Zelie lived such exemplary lives faithful to the spirit of the Gospel, Pope Benedict on October 19, 2008 in the Basilique de Sainte-Therese in Lisieux, France, declared them Blessed.  Blessed Louis and Blessed Azelie-Marie will be canonized by Pope Francis during the Synod of Bishops on Family Life on October 18, 2015.  The first married couple in the history of the Church to be declared saints on the same day.

Zelie, the Jack Russell Terrier, has a lot to live up to with the name I have given her.