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October 4, 2025
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Relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux to Visit Thomas Aquinas College, California

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

For more information, please contact:
Chris Weinkopf, Executive Director of College Relations
805-421-5926 | pr@thomasaquinas.edu

 

In honor of the 100th anniversary of her canonization, the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux will come to the United States for a two-month tour this fall, making a stop at Thomas Aquinas College, California.

On October 14-15, the campus will host the saint’s reliquary in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel. The chapel will be open to all those who wish to venerate the relics beginning Tuesday, October 14, when they arrive at 4:00 p.m. until the gates close at 10:30 p.m., and between 6:00 a.m. and 3:15 p.m., when they depart the following day. Veneration of the relics will be continuous except during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

The last U.S. tour of the relics in 1999 drew in over 1 million people, and this year’s organizers hope for a similar outcome. “What we want, through the relics of St. Thérèse, is to bring people back to Church, to lift up the country with something that’s totally positive, and then to bring in vocations,” Rev. Donald Kinney, OCD, national coordinator of the tour, told Our Sunday Visitor News.

Similarly, Suzie Andres, a TAC alumna author of several books about St. Thérèse of Lisieux, hopes the relics of the Little Flower will give visitors an opportunity to reflect on her Little Way of humble surrender. “St. Thérèse shows a beautiful intimacy with Christ,” she says. “She has so much to teach us about surrendering to God, because, as she explains, He does not desire from us great actions, but simply surrender and gratitude. Not only that, she also wants to help us and send ‘a shower of roses’ — she answers prayers like crazy!”

Visitors will have the opportunity to venerate St. Thérèse’s relics, attend Mass and confession, and pray the Rosary and Compline with Thomas Aquinas College students. Throughout the relics’ time on campus, the Carmelite Sisters will also offer short presentations on St. Thérèse.

“It’s a gift from St. Thomas Aquinas to us to bring his little sister in Christ to campus,” says Mrs. Andres. “It’s also a great gift of St. Thérèse, of her love for us and the Church around us, to grant the College the privilege of hosting her relics. Now, people who know St. Thérèse but might not know about St. Thomas or the College can come learn about both by visiting, and those of us in the TAC community will get a chance to learn more about her Little Way and how to abandon ourselves to God.” 

For more information about the relics’ visit to campus, including the schedule of events and visitor directions, please visit the College’s St. Thérèse relic page. 

 

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About Thomas Aquinas College

With campuses in California and Massachusetts, Thomas Aquinas College has developed over the last half century a solid reputation for academic excellence in the United States and abroad. It is highly ranked by secular organizations, such as The Princeton Review and U. S. News, as well as Catholic guides, including the Cardinal Newman Society and the National Catholic Register. The college offers one, four-year, classical curriculum that spans the major arts and sciences. Instead of reading textbooks, students study the original works of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization — the Great Books — in all the major disciplines. Rather than listen to lectures, they work through these texts in small, rigorous classroom discussions. The academic life of the college is conducted under the light of the Catholic faith and flourishes within a close-knit community, supported by a vibrant spiritual life. Alumni consistently excel in the many world-class institutions at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine, business, theology, and education.