Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross – Edith Stein

Edith Stein was born into a Jewish family, her mother being particularly devout. She lost her Jewish faith in her teens and went to study philosophy under the renowned Edmund Husserl. Later she was attracted to the Church by the example of Catholics and other Christians, and by reading through in one night the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. Apart from philosophy papers, as an academic she wrote extensively on matters of education, and on women’s issues. Edith’s teaching was curtailed by the Nazis and she entered Carmel in Cologne in 1933 taking the name Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. With heightened persecution in Germany she transferred to the Carmel at Echt in Holland. She was arrested there and sent with her blood sister Rosa to Auschwitz where she was gassed in August 1942.