Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)Virgin and
Martyr Edith Stein, born in 1891 in Breslau, Poland, was the youngest child of a large
Jewish family. She was an outstanding student and was well versed in
philosophy with a particular interest in phenomenology. Eventually she became interested in the
Catholic Faith, and in 1922, she was baptized at the
Cathedral Church in Cologne, Germany. Eleven years later Edith entered the
Cologne Carmel. Because of the ramifications of politics in Germany, Edith, whose name in
religion was Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was sent to the
Carmel at Echt, Holland. When the Nazis conquered Holland, Teresa was arrested, and, with her sister Rose, was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Teresa died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of fifty-one. In 1987, she was
beatified in the large outdoor soccer stadium in Cologne by Pope
John Paul II. Out of the unspeakable human suffering caused by the Nazis in western
Europe in the 1930's and 1940's, there blossomed the beautiful
life of dedication, consecration, prayer, fasting, and
penance of Saint Teresa. Even though her
life was snuffed out by the satanic
evil of genocide, her
memory stands as a light undimmed in the midst of evil, darkness, and suffering. She was canonized on October 11, 1998.
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