Carry on Bravely: My Devotion to St. Zelie Martin
It is common Catholic knowledge that Saint Therese of Lisieux is a stalker saint. I know a lot of Catholics who have their own Saint Therese story. Over the years, she has been a part of my individual life as well as the life of my family. She brought my husband and me together, and she led us to our current parish and school, which happen to be named in her honor. This is, however, not a story about Therese, but rather about her greatest gift to me - a friendship with her mother, Saint Zelie Martin.
When we first started going to our parish, we learned about the pastor’s devotion to Louis and Zelie Martin and noticed the image of the Martin family in between the confessionals. At the time, I noted that they were Blesseds and didn’t think of them again.
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I went to all of the classes. I listened, learned and felt confident that my experience was going to be great. I loved how natural and easy breastfeeding seemed to be. However, her birth came with a traumatic emergency C-section, a NICU stay, and a very rough transition to nursing. It felt like I had been lied to and that I was failing at all the things that were supposed to come naturally. Layered on top of the usual mom guilt was the influence of so many Catholic moms on social media who innocently expounded the vision of motherhood in blissfully nursing your child, enjoying all the newborn cuddles, and praising the experience of natural childbirth. I felt very betrayed by my own body and mistakenly let it influence my own view of myself as a mother and my own holiness within that vocation.
During a particularly rough middle-of-the-night feeding, as I was scrolling through social media, I happened upon an old blog post about patron saints for breastfeeding moms. I sleepily scrolled through the names and stopped at one: Blessed Zelie Martin. There she was again! I read the short description of her and was surprised to learn about her own struggles with nursing and how she had to send some of her children to a wet nurse. Here was a Catholic mother, on her way to canonized sainthood with one of the most quintessential saints for a daughter, having the same struggles that I was.
I dove into Saint Zelie’s story, and the more I read, the more comforted I was by her. She was a wife, mother, and business owner with a quick wit who also struggled with the daily struggles of motherhood. She too often felt like she was failing her kids and her Faith. I was also struck by her unwavering devotion to Christ and the sincere trust she had in God, despite the many hardships she faced, including losing several children in early infancy. In her final years, she went to Lourdes hoping to be healed of her breast cancer, but returned home grappling with her disappointment in the lack of a miracle.
Over the years, Saint Zelie has served not only as a model, but also a friend. I think of her often when I face the challenges and disappointments of being a working mom. She challenges me to choose love in each daily interaction, even when it costs me to do so. She models a trust in God when things don’t go as we have planned or hoped. She reminds me that, “The good Lord does not do things by halves; He always gives what we need. Let us then carry on bravely.”
Meet Victoria Mastrangelo
Victoria is a wife, mother of 3, and high school theology teacher in Houston, Tx. Her favorite saints are Edith Stein, John Paul II, Ignatius of Loyola and Dorothy Day who all continue to mentor and inspire her in her love for the feminine genius, Ignatian spirituality, the gospel of life and work for justice. She loves to read multiple books at a time, drink coffee, try new foods, play trivia and hang out at the zoo with her family. Connect with Victoria on Instagram @vimastrangelo.