EDITH STEIN

 

EDITH STEIN, SR TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS,                              12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942

Edith Stein was born, the eleventh child, into a devout Jewish family in Breslau, in what was then Germany but is now Poland, in 1891. Her father died soon afterwards and her mother set about bringing her family up as devout Jews fulfilling all the laws and customs of their tradition. Edith was precocious and would endlessly probe the questions about life and faith that arose in her. As a teenager she concluded, she was not satisfied with her Jewish faith and became an agnostic – to her mother’s great sorrow.

At the university of Freiburg, Edith threw herself into philosophical studies searching for answers to her questions. Highly intelligent, she soon made her mark and won the attention of the renowned philosopher, Edmund Husserl. Deeply distressed by the outbreak of war in 1914, Edith volunteered to become a nurse. Her experience of the suffering of people unsettled her and left her with even more questions. Meanwhile her academic career progressed and she attained the highest honours but was blocked from the recognition that was her due because she was a woman.

She continued her search and one day in 1921 she happened to come across the Autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. She began to read out of curiosity without any high expectations but gradually was drawn into the book and could not put it down. She read all night and finished it at dawn. She knew then she had found what she wanted. She applied to be baptised into the Catholic Church but the priest said she needed time to prepare. She said she was fully ready and he gave way to her and she was baptised on 1 January 1922.

Edith wanted to follow Teresa and become a Carmelite immediately but she was persuaded to continue her philosophical studies and teaching. Now she had a new vision for her life and she studied St Thomas and taught at the Dominican school at Speyer. In 1933 the Nazis withdrew her licence to teach because she was a Jew. Edith wrote to the pope, Pius XI, urging him to protest about the persecution of the Jews which was ‘an abuse of the holiest humanity of our Saviour’.

She realised she was now free to enter the Carmelites which she did in Cologne in November 1933, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. The sisters knew the Nazis persecution of the Jews was only beginning and sent her for her safety to the Netherlands. But nowhere was safe. When World War Two broke out the Nazis invaded the Netherlands and the Dutch bishops issues a strong condemnation of their policies especially their persecution of the Jews. In response the Nazis arrested 987 Jews and sent them to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Efforts were made to save Edith but she said, ‘not to share the fate of my brothers and sisters would be utter annihilation.’ She was killed on the 9th August 1942. Pope John Paul II canonised her in 1998.