François-Marie Léthel

François-Marie Léthel was born in Paris in 1948, he practiced his profession at the Carmelo (Province of Paris) in 1968, and was ordained priest in 1975. After having obtained the license in Philosophy, he attained the one in Theology at the Paris Catholic Institute, with a dissertation on Saint Maximus the Confessor. Then, he pursued the doctorate in Theology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, with a dissertation entitled Know the Love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge. The Theology of Saints.

Father Léthel has been living in Rome since 1982 as a professor (now emeritus) of the dogmatic and spiritual theology at our Teresianum. He is an invited professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and at the Theology faculty in Palermo. Moreover, he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology and Consultor for the Causes of the Saints.

In 2011, he was invited by Benedict XVI to preach the spiritual exercises of the Lent at the Vatican, receiving from the theologian Pope the confirmation of the method of the theology of the saints, which reunites the Scientia fidei of the academic theology and the Scientia amoris of the mystical theology, the great reason and the immense love.

In his books and articles, he mentions the Greek Fathers (Irenaeus of Lyons, Dionigi Areopagita and Maximus the Confessor), the Medieval Doctors (Anselm and Thomas) and the Mystics (Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross, Louis Marie de Monfort, Gemma Galgani, and many more). 

Father Léthel gives, above all, a hand to Saint Theresa of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church and Patron Saint of the Missions (she is also Patron of France along with Joan of Arc). Together with other Carmelites, he has collaborated with the drafting of the Positio for the Doctorate of Theresa in 1997.