Pope Leo XIV Says First Canonized Couple Give Example of "marriage as a path to holiness"

Their example, he said, reveals the “ineffable happiness and profound joy that God grants, both here on earth and for eternity, to those who embark on this path of fidelity and fruitfulness.”

“Dear couples, I invite you to persevere courageously on the path, sometimes difficult and laborious, but luminous, that you have undertaken,” Pope Leo wrote.

“Above all, put Jesus at the center of your families, your activities and your choices,” he said.

The message was addressed to Bishop Bruno Feillets of Séez, France, whose diocese includes the Martins’ first family home in the town of Alençon, where celebrations are taking place for the anniversary.

Louis and Marie-Azélie (Zélie) Martin were married in 1858 at Notre Dame Basilica in Alençon. Before marrying, both had sought religious life — Louis with the Augustinians and Zélie with the Sisters of Charity — but each discerned that God was calling them to marriage.

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Zélie prayed for children who would consecrate their lives to God, and the couple was blessed with nine. Four died in infancy, and the remaining five became religious sisters, including Thérèse, who would later become one of the Church’s most beloved saints and a Doctor of the Church.

Thérèse said that God had given her “a mother and a father more worthy of heaven than of earth.”

Zélie died of breast cancer in 1877 at age 45. After Zelie’s death, Louis moved the family to Lisieux, where four of his daughters went on to become Carmelite nuns.

The Martins were canonized together by Pope Francis on Oct. 18, 2015, becoming the first married couple in Church history to be declared saints together — a testament, Pope Leo said, to the enduring truth that marriage, lived faithfully, “leads to the glory of heaven.”

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.