Oh little flower, in this hour show your power." Say this 16 times and St Therese will locate a lost object for you, advised the young man standing outside the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin yesterday.
He had visited Lisieux when he was 10 and now had a special devotion to St Therese, he said. An elderly woman hastened to add a caution. "She always sends a thorn after a blessing. I went to see the film of the Little Flower when I was a girl. It was shown by the Holy Ghost fathers. It was so good my sister and I stayed to see it twice. When we went home, we were belted. That was our thorn."
The crowd thronging Marlborough Street was largely crowned with white and grey hairs. They clutched single roses and devotional leaflets, fingers entwined in rosary beads, patiently waiting for the cathedral to empty after the reception and prayers which welcomed St Therese at 2 p.m yesterday.
Savvy devotees had been sitting in the Pro-Cathedral since early morning and many of those who had arrived later had no option but to wait outside.
Standing at the back of the church, where the casket reposing in front of the altar could be glimpsed by standing on tiptoe, William O'Connor confided that he and his wife, Theresa, had already seen St Therese at St James's Hospital and were planning to follow her to Terenure next.
Outside, the cry "Roses for the blessing. Roses for the blessing" filled the air as hawkers sold cellophane-wrapped red, white and yellow roses for £1 each.
Ellen McCormac, from Artane, said she loved prayer and tried to encourage her grandchildren to pray.
The relics of St Therse of Lisieux will remain at the Pro-Cathedral until noon tomorrow.