A month after the death of our holy Mother, a flu epidemic broke out in the community. I was on my feet alone with two other sisters, I will never be able to say everything I saw, what life seemed to me, and all that passes away. The day of my nineteenth birthday was marked by one death, soon followed by two more. At that time, I was taking care of the sacristy by myself, my superior in this role was very seriously ill, and I had to prepare funerals, open the choir grilles for Mass, etc.
God gave me many graces and strength at that time, today I wonder how I could do everything I did without fear. Death reigned everywhere, the most ill sisters were cared for by those who could barely drag themselves, when a sister breathed her last, we had to leave her in solitude… But in the midst of this abandonment, I felt that God was watching over us.
(St. Thérèse of Lisieux, manuscript A;
Thérèse mentions the return of the epidemic at the turn of the year 1891 and 1892 – the mentioned Mother Genevieve died on December 5, three more sisters in early January;
the main wave of 1889/90 had 70,000 victims in France alone; for comparison: today the French report just over 70,000 covid victims.)
