St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Their story

Edith Stein was born into a devout Jewish family in Breslau, Germany, in 1891. As a teenager she stopped praying and called herself an atheist, but she never stopped searching for the truth. She became a brilliant philosopher, studying under Edmund Husserl and earning her doctorate with highest honors. In the summer of 1921, while staying with friends, she picked up the autobiography of St. Teresa of Ávila and read it through the night. When she closed the book, she knew she had found the truth she had been looking for. She was baptized on January 1, 1922. For the next eleven years she taught and lectured, writing especially about the dignity and vocation of women. In 1933 she entered the Carmelite monastery in Cologne, where she received the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. As Nazi persecution grew, her community moved her to a Carmel in the Netherlands for her safety. In August 1942 she and her sister Rosa were arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where they were killed on August 9. Pope St. John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and the next year named her a co-patroness of Europe. Edith's life speaks to every seeker: an honest search for the truth, followed all the way, leads to Jesus Christ.