POPE LEO XIV
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Pope Francis spoke of his devotion to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus a number of times, and even revealed a practice that he shared with many of the faithful around the world: asking her to send him roses in answer to prayer. The white rose on his tomb the day of his burial was a reference to this devotion.
Now, Pope Leo XIV has continued highlighting this devotion with his own gesture.
On his first trip outside the Vatican, one of the Pope's two stops was at Francis' tomb. There, he placed a white rose.
Pope Leo has already made a number of references to his immediate predecessor, though he hasn't yet spoken specifically of his love for St. Thérèse. But this gesture indicates that he's well aware of it.
St. Thérèse is a doctor of the Church and was the subject of an apostolic letter written by Francis.
Pope Francis' roses
The Holy See's official media outlet reports that, a few days after Francis' discharge from his last stay at Gemelli Hospital – on March 23 – Francis received a white rose from Lisieux, Thérèse's birthplace. "He kept it on a nightstand next to his bed," it reads.
St. Thérèse is associated with roses because of her own words:
“I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens; I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth.”
This has led to the tradition of praying a novena or other prayers to Thérèse asking for roses. And it was a tradition that Francis had from his days before he was pope.
He described this to journalists on his way to Manila in 2015.
I have the habit, when I do not know how things are going, of asking St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus that if she takes care of some problem, anything at all, to send me a rose. At times she does, but in odd ways. In the same way, I asked her watch over this journey and to send me a rose.
Argentine journalists Sergio Rubín and Francesca Ambrogetti, authors of a book on the future pope, El Jesuita, said that when they went to Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio's office in Buenos Aires, they found a vase of white roses in front of a picture of St. Thérèse.
The future pope explained to the two journalists:
When I have a problem, I ask the saint -- not that she resolve the problem, but that she take it in her hands and help me to accept it. And as a sign, I almost always receive a white rose.
