BRISBANE crowds gave St Therese the Little Flower one of her warmest welcomes during the 90-day visit of her relics to Australia.
An organiser said although numbers of visitors were not as great as in Sydney and Melbourne, the week-long visit to Brisbane archdiocese attracted about 15,000 pilgrims.
One of the highlights was when St Therese was made an honorary citizen of Redland Shire on April 29 for the visit of her relics to the Carmelite Sisters’ monastery at Ormiston.
Mayor Don Seccombe, welcoming the relics to the shire, said April 2002 would be ‘long remembered for this tangible sign of the presence of St Therese in our midst’.
The sisters, who are part of a closed order, were clapped spontaneously as, in a rare move, they ventured from behind the enclosure of their carmel and joined the welcoming crowd under marquees on the lawns.
The sisters’ chapel was filled for every Mass and the priests struggled with the numbers who wanted to go to reconciliation.
Sr Katherine said people came back to the Church after long periods away.
‘The sisters are so grateful that everyone who came here came for the right reasons,’ she said.
