The Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse was raised on the hill above Lisieux after her canonization in 1925: begun in 1929, blessed in 1937, consecrated in 1954, and one of the largest churches built anywhere in the twentieth century. Her parents' relics are venerated in the crypt.
FRANCE · LISIEUX49.1395° N · 0.2366° E
Location
Lisieux, France 49.1395° N · 0.2366° E
Type
Basilica Romano-Byzantine, designed by Louis-Marie Cordonnier, begun 1929
Dedication
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus
Time Needed
30 minutes to half a day
Why Go
The Church the Devotion Built
Come here for what happened after Thérèse died, which is a real part of her story and not a lesser one. A Carmelite nun who left no public work and died at twenty-four was canonized twenty-eight years later, and within four more years a basilica for three thousand pilgrims was rising over her town. The building is the measure of that. Go down into the crypt as well, because the relics of her father and mother are there, and Lisieux is the only place where a whole household is venerated together.
From a Cemetery Grave to a Basilica
Thérèse died in the Carmel on 30 September 1897 and was buried in the town cemetery. Story of a Soul went out the following year, and the devotion grew faster than anyone had planned for. She was beatified in 1923 and her relics were carried to the Carmel chapel; she was canonized on 17 May 1925. A basilica was proposed at once. Local clergy hesitated, Pope Pius XI did not, and the architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier was chosen after an earlier Paris design was judged inadequate. The foundation stone was laid on 30 September 1929. Cardinal Pacelli, soon to be Pius XII, blessed the building on 11 July 1937, and it was consecrated on 11 July 1954. The crypt was finished in marble and mosaic by 1958. In 2015 Louis and Zélie Martin were canonized together in Rome, and their relics rest in that crypt.
Romano-Byzantine, on a Latin cross plan with a dome at the crossing, a free-standing campanile, and a broad terrace of steps climbing to the west front. Cordonnier's brief was sightlines: three thousand people, no columns in the way.
InsideMosaic on Medieval TermsPierre Gaudin's mosaics cover the walls and vaults. The nave was planned so that three thousand pilgrims could see the altar with nothing in the way.
Spiritual Significance
The basilica is where Lisieux does things at scale, the feasts, the great pilgrimages, the crowded Sundays of the season. It is not where the intimacy of Thérèse is found; that is at the Carmel and at Les Buissonnets. Coming here first and the town afterwards gets the emotional order wrong, and most pilgrims do it anyway because the station is close.
Do Not Miss · 5 stops
Five things, not fifty.
The crypt and the relics of Louis and Zélie Martin
Thérèse's parents were canonized together in 2015, the first married couple canonized together in modern times. Their reliquaries are venerated in the crypt, which makes this the one place where three saints of a single household are honoured together.
The mosaics of the upper church
Pierre Gaudin's work covers the walls and vaults. It is twentieth-century art made deliberately on medieval terms, and it is the reason the interior does not feel like a concert hall.
The scale of the nave
Four and a half thousand square metres, a hundred and four metres long, and a dome ninety metres above the floor, planned so that three thousand pilgrims could see the altar with nothing in the way.
The campanile
Fifty-one bells, including a bourdon of nine tonnes. If you are in Lisieux when they ring, stop and listen rather than walking on.
What is not here
Thérèse never saw this building. She died in 1897 and the foundation stone was laid in 1929, four years after her canonization. Her own life happened in the town below.
AboveNinety MetresThe dome stands ninety metres above the floor. A lift reaches the gallery when the dome visit is open.
What to notice
The basilica is a monument to a devotion rather than a place that devotion happened. Holding that distinction in mind is what keeps a Lisieux pilgrimage honest.
It went up fast and with enormous popular support. Pius XI called Thérèse the star of his pontificate and pushed the project forward against local hesitation.
Lisieux was heavily bombed in June 1944 and the basilica took only slight damage, which the town has never quite stopped remarking on.
Her principal reliquary, the châsse, is not here. It is in the chapel of the Carmel, ten minutes down the hill.
Visit Plans · 2 plans · add to a journey
How much time, and what to do with it.
Duration45 minBest forFirst visit
Upper church and crypt
4 ordered stops
The visit almost everyone makes: the great nave, then down to the crypt and the relics of her parents.
The terrace and the west front
The upper church and its mosaics
The crypt and its five mosaics
The reliquaries of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin
Duration1 hr 30 minBest forUnhurried pilgrims
The basilica and the view
5 ordered stops
The same visit with time for the mosaics and, when it is open, the lift to the dome gallery.
The upper church
The mosaic cycle
The crypt
The dome gallery, in season
A pause on the terrace, looking down at the town where she actually lived
How to Visit
Entering as a pilgrim, not a tourist.
Ten minutes on foot from the station, uphill at the end. Take the terrace steps, give the nave a few minutes, then go down to the crypt. Leave the dome for a second visit unless the day is clear.
Current Practical Information · reviewed August 5, 2026
Seasonal hours, and a crypt that closes first.
Entry
Free
Winter hours
About 9:30 to 18:00
Summer hours
About 9:30 to 19:00, and to 20:00 in August
Crypt
Closes about 15 minutes before the basilica
Dome
Daily in July and August; variable from September
Opening
The basilica opens daily from about half past nine, closing at six in winter, at seven through spring, summer and autumn, and at eight in August. The crypt closes about fifteen minutes before the basilica does.
Mass
Mass is celebrated daily in the crypt in the late afternoon, and on Sunday late morning in the basilica itself. A further weekday morning Mass runs through the pilgrimage season.
Mobility
The basilica is the most accessible of the four Theresian sites in Lisieux, and the crypt and dome are reached by lift.
Additional schedule notes
The dome
It closes in poor weather.
The diorama museum
It sits beside the basilica and is a matter of taste rather than of pilgrimage.
Confession
Confession is also heard at the Carmel chapel during the pilgrimage season.
The Theresian feasts
Accommodation in Lisieux books out well ahead of the feast.
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects
What pilgrims come to venerate here.
BelowWhere Her Parents Are VeneratedThe crypt was finished in marble and mosaic by 1958. The reliquaries of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin are venerated here.
The reliquaries of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin
Relics of canonized saints
Public veneration in the crypt
Sanctuary of Lisieux
Documented
Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin, Thérèse's parents, were canonized together by Pope Francis on 18 October 2015. Their relics are venerated in the crypt of this basilica.
Relics of Saint Thérèse
Relics of a canonized saint
Public veneration
Sanctuary of Lisieux
Documented
Relics of Thérèse are venerated in the upper basilica. Her principal reliquary, the châsse, is kept at the Carmel of Lisieux rather than here.
The mosaic cycle of Pierre Gaudin
Twentieth-century mosaic and stained glass
Not applicable
Sanctuary of Lisieux
Documented
Pierre Gaudin designed the stained glass and the mosaics of the basilica on medieval principles. The crypt was completed in marble and mosaic by 1958 and carries five mosaics of moments in Thérèse's life.
Source noteTraditional attributions are presented as tradition, with documentation named where it exists.
Connected Saints
How this place gathers the saints.
Three saints of one family are honoured in this building, and two of them are in the crypt.
Written from the Sanctuary of Lisieux, which administers the basilica, with the Wikimedia image provenance given in the credits. The basilica is dated and described as a building raised after Thérèse's canonization, so that no reader mistakes it for a place she knew.
