Shrine of St. Theresa and the
Infant Jesus
(Shrine of the "Little
Flower")
The shrine to St. Theresa of Lisieux, "The Little
Flower", is located at the south side of Plassmann
Hall. It was dedicated on May 17, 1925, the day Theresa was canonized
a saint. The year before the shrine was built, a seminarian at St. Bonaventure
became critically ill and all his doctors said he was going to
die. During his sickness, his classmates at St. Bonaventure
petitioned God through an all night vigil before the Blessed Sacrament to honor
the "Little Flower", whose help they had sought to spare the
seminarian's life. To everyone's delight he survived his illness and the shrine was built the
following year to honor St. Theresa for answering their prayers.
The original statue was replaced in 1972 after
suffering major damage a couple of years before.
It was at this shrine that
Thomas Merton sought counsel one evening, asking what it was he
should do with his life. It was then that he imagined he heard the
Trappist bells of the Gethsemani monastery. Soon after he left St. Bonaventure and joined the Trappists
in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jandoli, Russell J. "To Some She Sends Little Gifts." Olean
Times Herald 16 Sept. 1972: 24.
"Shrine of St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus" St. Bonaventure
University.
Last Updated:
June 27, 2018