The soft voices of 563 inmates at the jail compound in Magsaysay Avenue, Bacolod City as they sang a song to St. Therese moved those who accompanied her pilgrim relics yesterday after a concelebrated mass attended by more than 2,000 at the San Sebastian Cathedral.

Lining in single file to venerate the saint who is known for her apostolate for prisoners, the inmates were given the chance to get near the reliquary that houses the relics.

The reliquary arrived in Bacolod yesterday on board a Ro-Ro vessel from Iloilo and was met at the BREDCO port by soldiers from the Philippine Army, nuns, and members of religious groups who have devotions to St. Therese.

Devotees queued at the Cathedral after the mass to offer flowers, to touch the reliquary and the Theresemobile with their handkerchiefs.

People also lined up along the streets of downtown Bacolod as the procession passed, and in Barangay 35 where the relics had a brief stop in front of St. Therese Chapel in Cameroli.

A group of 50 pilgrims from Pasig City who attended the mass at the Cathedral, also joined the procession.

From the BJMP compound, the reliquary was brought to the Carmelite Monastery in Mandalagan where Carmelite nuns showered it with petals of roses.

St. Therese of Lisieux, France is known for her “little way of great love” and in his homily during the mass at the Cathedral, Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra urged the devotees to emulate the kind of faith the saint had shown.

Navarra said that the visit of the pilgrim relics of St. Therese is a special grace for the Diocese and the people should reflect on the saint’s message of showing extraordinary love.

Also known as Therese of the Child Jesus, the saint from Lisieux, France became a nun at the age of 15 and lived a simple life of prayer and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love.

At 24, she died from tuberculosis and the world came to know her through here autobiography, Story of a Soul, where she described her life as a “little way of spiritual childhood”.

The pilgrim relics of St. Therese will stay at the Carmel Church in Mandalagan today and the Monastery will be open for veneration by devotees from 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.

It will be brought to Kabankalan City tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. and expected to return to the Carmel Monastery at 5 p.m.

The relics will depart for Manila on Friday at 11:30 a.m.*NAB

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