(1880-1906)

Elizabeth Catez was born on 18 July1880, at Camp d'Avoc, Bourges, France. She died on 9th November 1906, Dijon, France. She was beatified in Rome on 25 November 1984, by Pope John Paul II.

When Elizabeth was 7, her father, a military officer, died; but Elizabeth and her sister Marguirite received an excellent Christian education from their mother, who was much devoted to the writings of St Teresa of Avila. Her mother also encouraged the development of her musical talent by sending her to the Dijon Conservatory. At the age of 14, Elizabeth made a vow of virginity.

She entered the Carmel at Dijon 2 August 1901; received the Carmelite habit from Bishop Le Nordez of Dijon on 8 December 1901; and was professed 11 January 1903.

On 21 November 1904, she composed her celebrated prayer, O my God, Trinity whom I adore, About Easter 1905 she discovered in St Paul her vocation, which was the praising of the glory of the Trinity. She twice received the grace of transforming union, first on the Feast of the Ascension (1906), and again a little later.

At 19, reading the Way of Perfection of Teresa of Avila, Elizabth�s attention was drawn to a formula that is the key to the understanding of her interior life and her spiritual doctrine:  in the heaven of my soul. Her personal existence came to be spent entirely in the presence of God, where she wanted nothing to distract her or prevent her life from becoming a continuous prayer. She desired to retire within herself and live in the little cell God had built in her heart, in that little corner of herself where she could see Him and have the feeling of His presence.

Two steps mark the rapid spiritual ascension of Elizabeth. In the first she appears in great purity of soul, reaching out to the enjoyment of the presence within her of the Three Divine Persons: 'I have found my heaven upon earth, for heaven is God, and God is in my soul' (Letter to Mme. De Sourdon, June 1902). In the second and more sublime stage she appears passing beyond herself in order to give herself more to the praise of the glory of the Trinity, just as Jesus had no thought but for the glory of the Father: 'Since my soul is a heaven wherein I dwell awaiting the heavenly Jerusalem, this heaven, too, must sing of the glory of the Eternal, nothing but the glory of the Eternal' (Last Retreat, 7th day). The holy soul devoted to the divine indwelling thus became an apostle of the praise of the glory of the Trinity. The indwelling of the Trinity in the soul was the centre of her doctrine as it was her life.

At the root of her teaching, as a condition fundamental to all spiritual life, is inner silence, i.e., a withdrawal from all that is created and a stilling even of the soul in presence of God. All within should be quieted that the soul may hear the Word and be instructed by Him. In his silence the contemplative should finds the fullness of God. The essential acts of this intimacy with the Guest within consist in a continual exercise of faith and love. Love proves itself by these acts and leads to an absolute fidelity to the will of God even in the slightest matters. The supreme model of this divine life is the Word, perfect praise of the glory of the Father, who wishes to prolong in each of us the mystery of His adoration and redemptive immolation. 'O my Christ - crucified for love, I beseech You to identify my soul with all the movements of Your soul, to immerse me, to possess me wholly and to substitute Yourself for me, so that my life is nothing but a ray beaming out from Your life� (Prayer of the Trinity).

Elizabeth saw in the Virgin of the Incarnation all the concentration upon God within her that was her own ideal of holiness. It seemed to her that the attitude of the Virgin during the months between the Annunciation and the Nativity is a model for all interior souls. The issue of this spiritual life is the unceasing praise of the blessed in heaven that is described in the last chapters of Revelations, which became Elizabeth�s favourite reading.

The spiritual doctrine concerning what is, in effect, the ultimate unfolding and development of the Christian's baptismal vocation was gathered together in 2 retreats composed at the end of her life: How to find Heaven upon Earth and the Last Retreat on the Praise of Glory, which she left as a spiritual testament.

At the age of 22 she displayed the first signs of Addison's disease, which led to her death at 26. Her last words: 'I go to the light, to love, to life'.

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