# Story of a Soul: Chapters I ## The Writing Timeline (What Was Happening as She Wrote it) **Date Written:** 1895 (Part of Manuscript A).  **Thérèse's Age:** 22 years old.  **The Context:** She is drafting this manuscript in her Carmel cell out of strict obedience to her prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus. There is an incredible layered reality here: Thérèse is writing about the profound, world-shattering grief of losing Pauline to the convent, while actively handing these very pages *to* Pauline inside that same convent. Spiritually, the 22-year-old writing this is experiencing a season of immense grace and stability, preparing for her grand offering to Merciful Love.   **Date:** between January 21 and March 25, 1895. ## The Event Timeline (What Was Happening then) **Dates:** November 1877 to roughly Spring 1883.  **Thérèse's Age:** 4 to 10 years old.  **The Context:** The family relocates to Lisieux following the death of Madame Martin, settling into Les Buissonnets under the protective care of Uncle Guérin. This era is marked by a profound personality shift: the previously outgoing, cheerful toddler becomes a timid, hypersensitive, and easily prompted-to-tears child. It encompasses her early schooling as a day-boarder at the Benedictine Abbey (beginning October 1881) and the devastating emotional blow when her chosen "second mother," Pauline, leaves the family to enter the Lisieux Carmel in October 1882.  Thérèse at eight years old and her sister Céline ---  Pauline in 1882, shortly before her entrance into Carmel. ---  The Martin family moved to Les Buissonnets a few months after the death of Zélie Martin on November 15, 1877, thus becoming closer to Uncle Isidore Guérin and his family. Thérèse lived there until she entered the Carmel on April 9, 1888. It was in these places that the Virgin smiled at her and cured her of her strange illness, but also that she received the grace of Christmas. After the internment of Louis Martin at the Bon Sauveur in Caen, the lease of the house was terminated at Christmas 1889. Céline and Léonie, then still in the world, went to live with their uncle Isidore. --- ## Synthesis & Notes The contrast in this chapter is especially poignant. You have the 10-year-old Thérèse falling physically ill from the grief of losing her sister, being written by the 22-year-old Thérèse who is peacefully living under her sister's direct authority. It adds such a rich layer to her reflections on childhood attachments!