Abstract
Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin, better known today as Thérèse of Lisieux, was a Carmelite nun who died on September 30, 1897, in Lisieux, France, after an extended battle with tuberculosis, aged only 24. She was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church on May 17, 1925. Remarkably, the nuns who cared for St. Thérèse during the final months of her long illness chose to record their last conversations with her. These remain a vivid testament to the Catholic ideal of a holy death. They constitute a relatively recent historical example for how Catholics are called to experience, to accept, and to redeem the pain and suffering at the end of life.
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Notes
- 1.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations. Trans. John Clarke, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1977). In my view, there is no better way to grasp the impact of a theological worldview on a person’s self-understanding of suffering and death than by comparing the dying of St. Thérèse of Lisieux with the dying of feminist icon, activist, and atheist, Susan Sontag, whose last conversations were recorded by her son, David Rieff, in his memoir of her death: Swimming in a Sea of Death (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008).
- 2.
For discussion, see Nora M. El Nawawi, Michael J. Balboni, and Tracy A. Balboni, “Palliative care and spiritual care: the crucial role of spiritual care in the care of patients with advanced illness,” Curr Opin Support Palliat Care 6.2 (2012): 269–274; Marvin O. Delgado-Guay, “Spirituality and religiosity in supportive and palliative care,” Curr Opin Support Palliat Care 8.3 (2014): 308–313; and Peggy Sturman Gordon, Psychosocial Interventions in End-of-Life Care (New York: Routledge, 2015), 102–138.
- 3.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Vol. 2. Trans. John Clarke, O.C.D. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1988), 1128 (Letter 244).
- 4.
For a clear and concise statement of the Catholic doctrine of the imago Dei, see the document of the International Theological Commission, Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God in Michael Sharkey and Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M., eds. International Theological Commission, Vol. II (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009), 319–352. For non-Catholic and Jewish perspectives, see D.J.A. Clines, “The Image of God in Man,” Tyndale Bulletin 19 (1968): 53–103; and Alexander Altmann, “Homo Imago Dei in Jewish and Christian Theology,” Journal of Religion 48.3 (1968): 235–259. For a comprehensive introduction to the Catholic Church’s theological anthropology, see Paul O’Callaghan, Children of God in the World (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016).
- 5.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §357.
- 6.
Ibid., §705.
- 7.
For a magisterial discussion of one influential view of deification in the Catholic tradition, see Daria Spezzano, The Glory of God: Deification According to St. Thomas Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015).
- 8.
For insightful discussion on the current debates over the meaning of human dignity, see the following: Michael Rosen, Dignity: Its History and Meaning (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013); Christopher McCrudden, ed. Understanding Human Dignity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013); and Dietmar Mieth and Jens Braarvig, The Cambridge Handbook of Human Dignity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- 9.
Francis, “Address of Holy Father Francis to Participants in the Meeting Organized by the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations,” September 20, 2013. Available at https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2013/september/documents/papa-francesco_20130920_associazioni-medici-cattolici.html
- 10.
John Paul II, Christifideles laici, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness John Paul II on the vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1988), §37.
- 11.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §356.
- 12.
John Paul II, Christifideles laici, §38.
- 13.
See the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation, Replies to Certain Questions of the Day Donum vitae (22 February 1987), Introduction, §5.
- 14.
John Paul II, “Address to the Plenary Session on the Subject ‘The Origins and Early Evolution of Life’, October 22, 1996,” in Papal Addresses to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences 1917–2002 and to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences 1994–2002, Scripta Varia 100, 370–374 (Vatican City: Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 2003), 373.
- 15.
Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes (7 December 1965), §29.
- 16.
John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, Apostolic Letter Of The Supreme Pontiff John Paul II To The Bishops, To The Priests, To The Religious Families And To The Faithful Of The Catholic Church On The Christian Meaning Of Human Suffering (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1984), §7. This citation from the apostolic letter is taken from the official Vatican translation.
- 17.
Eric Cassell, The Nature of Suffering (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 31.
- 18.
For discussion, see Peter Koslowski, The Origin and the Overcoming of Evil and Suffering in the Worlds Religions (New York: Springer, 2013).
- 19.
For a clear and concise statement of the Catholic understanding of suffering, see Pope St. John Paul’s apostolic letter, already cited above: John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1984).
- 20.
See Salvifici Doloris, §11.
- 21.
For a now classic work on the meaning of suffering, especially as it relates to the everyday experience of human life, see C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001).
- 22.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, 152.
- 23.
For a history and extensive discussion of the principle of double effect, see Joseph T. Mangan, S.J., “An Historical Analysis of the Principle of Double Effect,” Theological Studies 10 (1949): 41–61. For more philosophical analysis, see the essays in P.A. Woodward, ed., The Doctrine of Double Effect (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2001), especially the first essay by Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., entitled “Toward Understanding the Principle of Double Effect.”
- 24.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Euthanasia (5 May 1980), III.
- 25.
For a reviews of the medical literature concerning palliative sedation and suffering, see Patricia Claessens, Johna Menten, Paul Schotsmans, and Bert Broeckaert, “Palliative Sedation: A Review of the Research Literature,” Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 36.3 (2008): 310–333; Jorge H. Eisenchlas, “Palliative Sedation,” Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care 1.3 (2007): 207–212; and M. Maltoni, E. Scarpi, and O. Nanni, “Palliative sedation in end-of-life care,” Current Opinion in Oncology 25.4 (2013): 360–367.
- 26.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 5th ed. (Washington, D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2009), §61.
- 27.
For a fascinating discussion of the role that fear of death plays in the living out of life, see Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life (New York: Random House, 2015).
- 28.
Ibid., 3–37.
- 29.
Peter Cave, Death, Dying, and Meaning: Trainer’s Course Book (London: British Humanist Association, 2012), 4. Available at https://humanism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/death-dying-and-meaning-trainer-course-book.pdf
- 30.
Ibid., 6–7.
- 31.
Ibid., 32.
- 32.
Ibid., 18–19.
- 33.
For a magisterial and comprehensive theology of death as it is understood in the Catholic tradition, see Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, trans. Michael Waldstein and Aidan Nichols, O.P. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1988), 69–103; Also, see Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1005–1020.
- 34.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1006.
- 35.
Ibid., §1011.
- 36.
Pastoral Care of the Sick, Rites of Anointing and Viaticum, in The Rites of the Catholic Church, Vol. I (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1990), §§220, 866.
- 37.
For a classic seventeenth-century spiritual text from the Catholic tradition, see St. Alphonsus Ligouri, Preparation for Death: Considerations on Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell (Charlotte, NC: Tan Books, 2010).
- 38.
Ira Byock cites anecdotal evidence suggesting that patients can emerge from the suffering at life’s end with a sense of peace and wellness, describing the end of their lives as a time of opportunity for personal growth. See his paper, “The Nature of Suffering and the Nature of Opportunity at the End of Life,” Clinics in Geriatric Medicine 12.2 (1996): 237–252; and the book by Jana Staton, Roger W. Shuy, and Ira Byock, A Few Months to Live: Different Paths to Life’s End (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2001). For a now classic study of the dying process that proposes that terminally ill individuals go through five stages of grief, see Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying (New York, NY: Scribner, 1969), and the accompanying volume, Questions & Answers on Death and Dying (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1974). Working at the Grief Recovery Institute, Russell Friedman and John W. James have contested the Kubler-Ross Model. See their essay, “The Myth of the Stages of Dying, Death and Grief,” Skeptic 14 (2008): 37–41.
- 39.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations, 209.
- 40.
For insightful discussion, see the essay by Mark J. Seitz, “The Role of the Priest in Bioethical Decision Making,” National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 4.4 (2004): 681–689.
- 41.
Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium: Teacher of the Word, Minister of the Sacraments, and Leader of the Community (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1999), 14ff.
- 42.
For an insightful commentary on the sacrament of anointing as a healing practice of the Christian community for the care of those who are vulnerable, see M. Therese Lysaught, “Vulnerability within the Body of Christ: Anointing of the Sick and Theological Anthropology,” in Health and Human Flourishing: Religion, Medicine, and Moral Anthropology, ed. Carol R. Taylor and Roberto Dell’oro (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007), 159–182.
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Austriaco, R.N.P.G. (2018). The Suffering and Death of the Imago Dei: A Theological Perspective for Palliative and Hospice Care. In: Moore, R. (eds) Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95369-4_40
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