St Therese of Lisieux was a French Carmelite nun who died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24.
She was to emerge as a powerful intercessor: people who prayed to her assuming her to be in heaven, and using her as a bridge to God, found their prayers answered.
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Pope Pius X described her as 'the greatest saint of modern times", but she has been more popularly known as the "Little Flower".
One of the results has been that her bodily remains have been venerated by Roman Catholics, and carried round the world to more than forty countries in the hope that they might bring good things to bad situations.
Later this year St Therese's relics will tour England and Wales for the first time, going on October 12th to Wormwood Scrubs in West London.
A casket containing some of her bones will spend three and a half hours in the Anglican Chapel in the jail.
Inspectors say conditions in Wormwood Scrubs have deteriorated and that there is more activity by gangs.
When St Therese's relics were taken to Ireland in 2001, more people are reputed to have gone to see them than saw Pope John Paul II during his visit to the country.
The journey included a stop at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, where almost all the prisoners went to venerate the remains.
The organiser of the tour to England and Wales, Monsignor Keith Baltrop said the presence of St Therese's bones in a casket in the chapel would give prisoners the chance to pray for her help.
Msgr Baltrop told the Catholic Herald that "many people have experienced healing or a sense of putting things right after praying before the relics".
Some appeals are not successful; in December 2002, St Therese's relics were taken to Baghdad in the hope of preventing the Iraq War.
However, before she died St Therese said she intended to use her time in heaven to do good on earth.
One of the criteria by which saints are created by the Catholic Church is evidence that prayers addressed to them have been answered, indicating that they are in heaven.
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Source (BBC)
SV (ED)