“When you seek truth, you seek God whether you know it or not.”
Edith Stein, later known as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was born on October 12, 1891, in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), into a devout Jewish family. She was the youngest of eleven children, and her father died when she was just two years old, leaving her mother, a deeply religious woman, to raise the family. Despite her family's strong Jewish faith, by her teenage years, Edith had become an atheist. She was a brilliant student, excelling in her studies, and in 1911, she enrolled at the University of Breslau, where she studied psychology and philosophy.
Edith's intellectual pursuits led her to the University of Göttingen in 1913, where she became a student of Edmund Husserl, a leading figure in phenomenology, a philosophical movement focused on exploring and explaining those things we feel and think when we encounter the world—looking deep into our personal reactions to what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. She later became his assistant and completed her doctorate under his supervision, writing her dissertation on "The Problem of Empathy" in 1916. It was during her time in academia that Edith began to feel a deep dissatisfaction with atheism and started to explore spiritual questions.
A pivotal moment in Edith Stein’s spiritual journey occurred when she read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Ávila, a Catholic mystic, in 1921. This reading profoundly moved her, and she recognized in Catholicism the answers to her intellectual and spiritual search. In 1922, she converted to Catholicism and was baptized, much to the shock of her Jewish family.
Edith Stein’s early life was marked by intellectual brilliance, a deep search for truth, and a courageous decision to follow her newfound faith, which eventually led her to become a Discalced Carmelite nun and later a martyr during World War II.
After her conversion to Catholicism in 1922, Edith Stein began a remarkable journey of faith and intellectual pursuit. Although she desired to enter religious life immediately, she was encouraged by her spiritual advisors to remain in the world for a time. For several years, she devoted herself to academic and educational work, teaching at a Dominican school for girls in Speyer and continuing her philosophical writings. During this period, Stein became deeply influenced by the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and her writings increasingly explored the integration of faith and reason. She also translated several works of St. Thomas from Latin into German.
Despite her success as a scholar and educator, Edith felt an increasing call to religious life. In 1933, following the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and the intensifying persecution of Jews, she sought refuge in the Carmelite convent in Cologne and took the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Entering the Discalced Carmelite Order represented the fulfillment of her spiritual quest, as it allowed her to fully devote her life to prayer and contemplation. She chose the name “Benedicta of the Cross” to symbolize her devotion to Christ's suffering and the redemptive power of the Cross.
In the cloistered life, Edith Stein’s prayer and theological reflections deepened. She saw her conversion and vocation as part of a larger mission of intercession for her people and for the suffering of the world. During her time in the convent, she wrote one of her most significant works, The Science of the Cross, a profound meditation on the theology of St. John of the Cross. This work reflected her increasing awareness of the cross as central to her life, both spiritually and in the external world of persecution that was closing in around her.
As the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified, it became increasingly dangerous for Edith to remain in Germany. In 1938, the Carmelite order transferred her to the Carmel in Echt, in the Netherlands, where she continued her life of prayer and contemplation. However, even there, she could not escape the growing threat of the Nazi regime. In 1940, the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, and in 1942, the Dutch bishops issued a public statement condemning the deportation of Jews. In retaliation, the Nazis arrested all Catholic converts from Judaism. On August 2, 1942, Edith Stein and her sister Rosa, who had also converted and was living with the Carmelites as a lay sister, were arrested by the Gestapo.
Edith and Rosa were taken to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, where witnesses described Edith’s calm and composed demeanour. She cared for other prisoners, particularly the children, during the horrific conditions of the camp. On August 7, 1942, Edith and her sister were deported to Auschwitz. Shortly after arriving, on August 9, 1942, Edith Stein was executed in the gas chambers, dying as a martyr.
Edith Stein’s martyrdom was a profound witness to her faith and to her identity as both a Jew and a Christian. She had long seen her life as a bridge between the Jewish and Christian faiths, and she embraced the suffering of her people with Christ-like love. In her own writings, she had offered her life as an offering for the salvation of the Jewish people, for peace, and for the Church.
In 1987, Edith Stein was beatified by Pope John Paul II, who recognized her as a martyr for the faith. She was canonized as Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1998, and in 1999, she was declared one of the patron saints of Europe. Her life and death stand as a powerful testament to the integration of faith and reason, the redemptive power of suffering, and the deep solidarity of Christian love with the suffering of others.
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References
Edith Stein. The Science of The Cross: The Collected Works of Edith Stein. Vol 6. Translated by Josephine Koeppel. (ICS Publications: Washington, DC) 2003.
Edith Stein. On The Problem of Empathy. Translated by Waltraut Stein. (Martinus Nijhoff: The Hague, Holland.) 1964. [Original work in German, 1917. Both also accessible on Internetarchive.org]
Szanto, Thomas, and Dermot Moran. “Edith Stein.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, May 8, 2024. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stein/.
—Dr. John Hill
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