St. Thérèse of Lisieux 

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of Alaska, missionaries, and the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau. She is known for her Little Way. In her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, she wrote that what really mattered in life was not our great deeds, but our great love.

St. Thérèse was born in France in 1873. She became a cloistered nun of the Carmelite Order at the age of 15. She died nine years later at the age of 24. She was canonized a saint in 1925.
 
In 1917, Bishop Joseph R. Crimont, S.J., the first Vicar Apostolic of Alaska, included “la rose effeuillee” (the rose unpetaled) on his coat of arms to honor Thérèse, who was four years from being canonized. Bishop Crimont was in Rome in 1925 for the canonization of St. Thérèse and to hear the decree naming her “Queen and Patroness of Alaska.”
 
Thérèse is known for her “little way.” In her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, she wrote that what really mattered in life was not our great deeds, but our great love. She believed that the God of mercy had a special love for “ordinary” people, including herself. Through personal example and unshakable confidence in God’s love, St. Thérèse put into practice her belief that opportunities for loving occur most often in the ordinary events of one’s life, and through these happenings, we are called to choose to love others with God’s help, and to grow into wholeness and holiness. The message of St. Thérèse, now known throughout the world, teaches us that no one has to earn God’s love. God loves us first and the purpose of life is to respond to this love.