Thousands expected to visit Catholic relics in London

Up to 100,000 pilgrims are expected to flock to the mother church of Roman Catholics in England for the culmination of a tour of the relics of a 19th century French nun which arrived in London.

The heavy jacaranda wood casket containing the relics of St Therese of Lisieux is on show in Westminster Cathedral until tomorrow, the high point of a month-long tour of England and Wales.

The relics, made up of portions of her thigh and foot bones, have attracted crowds in Catholic cathedrals, convents and even Wormwood Scrubs prison in London.

Westminster Cathedral said it had ordered 100,000 candles and 50,000 pink roses to meet demand from the 2,000 pilgrims expected to venerate the relics every hour.

The nun, known in the Catholic world as the Little Flower of Jesus, entered the sisterhood aged just 15, but died aged 24 in 1897 from tuberculosis.

The posthumous publication of her autobiography The Story Of A Soul" elevated her to worldwide fame and she was declared a saint in 1925 by the Catholic Church.

She has been adopted as the patron saint by a number of groups including missionaries, AIDS sufferers, and the sick.