Aug 9th Memorial Of Teresa Benedicta Of The Cross (edith Stein)

[cappie]

 Edith Stein was born on 12 October 1891, in, Silesia. She was the youngest of 11 children in a  Jewish family. However, by her teenage years, she  regarded herself an atheist.

 

One of the first women to do university studies in Germany,   studied under Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology.

 

By chance, she happened on the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. The effect of the book was to convince her of the truth of the Catholic Church. She was baptized on 1 January 1922. She taught at a Dominican girls’ school and studied Catholic philosophy. She became a lecturer at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster but was thrown out of her post in 1933 as a result of the Nazi regime’s anti-Semitic legislation.

 

On 15 October, the feast of St Teresa of Avila and just after her 42nd birthday, Edith entered the Carmel of Cologne and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

 

Edith stayed in Cologne for five years however, after Kristallnacht of 9 November 1938, there were fears for Edith’s safety and she was sent to a Carmelite convent in The Netherlands.  While a Carmelite she wrote an important philosophical book, seeking to combine the phenomenology of her former teacher Edmund Husserl with the philosophy of Aquinas, and she also wrote on St John of the Cross.

 

Her converted sister Rosa joined her there serving as the convent portress.

 

Holland was overrun by the Nazis, there was a plan to move the sisters to Switzerland. However, before this could be done, an encyclical from the Dutch bishops on 20 July 1942 against anti-Semitism resulted in all convert Jews being arrested to be sent to the death camps. Edith and Rosa Stein were arrested on 2 August 1942. As they were led away, Edith said to her sister: “Come, Rosa.  We go for our people.”

 

The sisters were brought to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers on August 9th. Edith Stein was just 50 years old.  She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 1 May 1987 and canonised as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on 11 October 1998.