Friday, August 09, 2013 St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) (1891-1942) A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14, Edith Steinwas so captivated by readingthe autobiography of Teresa of Avila (October 15) that shebegan a spiritual journey that led to her Baptism in 1922. Twelve years later sheimitated Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen, she became fascinated by phenomenology, an approachto philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl, one of the leading phenomenologists, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922 when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the EducationalInstitute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis. After living in the Cologne Carmel (1934-38), she movedto the Carmelite monastery inEcht, Netherlands. The Nazisoccupied that country in 1940. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Blessed John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta in 1987 and canonized her 12 years later
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 21:09:33 +0000