Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face

Celine Martin who took the name, Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face, was the blood sister of St. Therese. She wrote:

"Lord, my ambition is to be, with my darling Thérèse, a little child in our Father's heavenly house. I wish to work solely to give You pleasure...I consent always to lose here below, because I want all I receive from You to be gratuitous, because You love me, and not riches acquired by my virtues...Do not judge me according to my works, do not impute to me my faults, but look upon the Face of my Jesus. It is He who will answer for me."

"My spiritual life," she was to say later on, "can be written between two loves: my Thérèse and the Holy Face."

"how can I not present myself with assurance before the Face of God? Yes, because the Face of my Jesus is God Himself made visible to my eyes under a veil of flesh, 'the bow of the mighty is broken, and the weak are girt with strength.' (I Samuel, II, 4)'

 "My devotion to the Holy Face is the summary of my love of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus. I am the little satellite of His Humanity."

"O my Jesus...You know it; my desire has always been to love You and make You loved. Not able to conceive of love greater than what You poured out through my Thérèse, my dream is to spend it in my turn. Together, and on the same day, O Jesus, You accepted us as Victims of Your Merciful Love. I was the first to follow her in her Little Way. She opened the door and I entered after her...Is the day very far off when I shall hear the sound of Your voice, when You will press me to Your Heart, when I shall be able to see You and kiss Your sweet Face, when forever I shall sit with Thérèse on Your knees ? O Jesus, may I live and die of Love for You !''

It was Celine Martin, Sister Genevieve who took the picture of St. Therese holding up the image of Child Jesus of  Ittenbach and the Holy Face, you can see this picture on the main page and here.

On studying, venerating the image of the Holy Face from the Shroud of Turin, she wrote: 

"It is indeed my Jesus, such as I have pictured Him...And studying the traces of His sufferings by means of the wounds I followed the impression of the cruel crown of thorns. I saw the blood, coagulating in the hair, and running down in large drops. On top of the head, to the left, one senses that the crown must have been torn off with difficulty. The hair was raised under this strain and plastered together by blood. The left eye appears to be slightly open and the right eye is puffed up. I saw the upper part of the nose was broken, the right cheek and nostrils swollen by the servant's blow, the beard all covered with blood...Then, no longer able to contain myself, I covered this adorable Face with my kisses and bathed It with my tears. I made the resolution to paint a Holy Face after this ideal I had seen." 

Here is her painting depicting the Holy Face from the Shroud of Turin:

 When shown the image above, by Sister Genevieve, St. Pope Pius X remarked:

"How beautiful it is!" 

"I want to give a souvenir to the religious who made that."

And so he did. 

St. Pope Pius X, sent Sister Genevieve, a large bronze medal with his portrait engraved in relief.

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