My Thoughts 09/11/2021

Today we remember St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a young woman who joined the discalced Carmelites at the age of 21, and died on this day 9th November when she was 26 years old, of Addison’s disease.

Elizabeth Catez was born in 1880 in Central France. At the age of 11 after her First Holy Communion and Confirmation she set her heart on becoming a contemplative nun.

“She had little formal education but became proficient in music, winning several prizes at the Dijon Conservatoire.”

Less than two years after joining Carmel at Dijon she showed the first symptoms of Addison’s disease, caused by a glandular malfunction and with no known treatment. She accepted this and saw this as an opportunity to “conform oneself to the Crucified in love.”

She developed a mystical theology of suffering written down in two notebooks. Here she wrote about Christ her spouse who,

“wishes me to be the surrogate human being in whom he can suffer again for the glory of her Father and the salvation of the Church. This thought makes me so happy”

During a time of acute illness she was tempted to despair. Her final words were,

“I am going to the light, to love, to life.”

She is a patron against illness, of sick people, and the loss of parents.

“Let us live with God as with a friend, let us make our faith a living faith in order to be in communion with Him through everything, for that is what makes us saints. We possess our Heaven within us… The day I understood that everything became clear to me. I would like to whisper this secret to those I love so they too might always cling to God through everything…” (Letter 122.)