Although Louis intended to become a monk, wishing to enter the Augustinian Great St. Bernard Monastery, he was rejected because he did not succeed at learning Latin.

Zélie wanted to become a nun, but was turned away by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul due to respiratory difficulties and recurrent headaches.

[8] Along with this desire for adventure was an impulse towards withdrawal; in Lisieux Louis arranged a little den for himself high up in the attic, a true monastic cell for praying, reading and meditation.

To his daughters he gave touching and naïve pet names: Marie was his "diamond", Pauline his "noble pearl", Céline "the bold and fearless one", and "the guardian angel".

[10] A few weeks later, Louis sold her lacemaking business and their house along Rue St. Blaise,[11] and moved to Lisieux, Normandy, where Zélie's brother Isidore Guérin, a pharmacist, lived with his wife and two daughters.

They were beatified on 19 October 2008 by José Saraiva Cardinal Martins, the legate of Pope Benedict XVI in the Basilica of Saint Thérèse, Lisieux.

A few months earlier, the Catholic Church had recognized the miracle of Pietro Schilirò, an Italian child cured of lung trouble at their intercession.

[17][18] On 3 March 2015 Angelo Cardinal Amato announced informally that Louis and Zélie Martin would be declared saints during the Synod of Bishops.

[23] In 2011, the letters of Zélie and Louis Martin were published in English as A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863–1885 (ISBN 0818913215).