Edith Stein - Saint Benedicta of the Cross: "A daughter of Israel who, during the Nazi persecutions, remained united with faith and love to the Crucified Lord, Jesus Christ, as a Catholic, and to her people as a Jew"

Summary:

Edith Stein was born in 1891 in the Kingdom of Prussia, which was part of the German Empire at the time. Edith's mother was a devout Jewish believer. 

From an early age, Edith Stein was very interested in her studies, and was an excellent student. In her teens, she gave up her religious practice: " I stopped praying, as a matter of conscience and free choice." She read widely and developed a particular interest in philosophy, which she studied at the University of Breslau after her A-levels. She also took courses in psychology and history, and studied several languages.

When Edith Stein discovered the themes developed by Edmund Husserl, she went to Göttingen, where the leading philosophers of phenomenology were gathered.  Edith was the first woman in Germany to submit a thesis in philosophy (entitled "On the Problem of Empathy"). She became Husserl's collaborator, and carried out extensive research and synthesis work for him. He wrote of her: "The great style that presides over the elaboration of these contributions, the thorough scientific character and finesse that she has shown there, deserve the highest recognition."

Edith Stein's conversion was the fruit of an intellectual and spiritual journey that spanned several years. She herself distinguishes several key stages:

• Visiting Frankfurt Cathedral, Edith caught sight of a woman returning from the market who entered to say a short prayer, as if visiting someone, then left. "This was something completely new to me. In the synagogues and temples I knew, when we went there it was for the service. Here, in the midst of everyday business, someone would enter a church as if for an intimate conversation. I've never been able to forget it."
• Edith was also deeply affected by the death of her philosopher friend Adolf Reinach at the battlefront in 1917. The moral influence of Reinach's widow strongly appealed to Edith: "The decisive cause of my conversion to Christianity was the way in which my friend offered, through the power of the mystery of the Cross, the sacrifice imposed on her by the death of her husband."
• Edith read the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila and couldn't put it down. She felt as though it was addressed to her personally. Through the words of Saint Teresa, Edith encountered the word of Christ. She understood that the truth she had been seeking in philosophy was a Person, and that this Person was Love. "When I closed this book, I said to myself: this is the truth!"
• Announcing this conversion to her mother was very difficult for Edith: "As for my mother, my conversion is the heaviest pain I can inflict on her." She was baptized in 1922 and entered the Carmelite convent in Cologne 11 years later, taking the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. There she continued her work, which could not be published during her lifetime due to the anti-Semitic laws of the Third Reich. 

Faced with the danger posed by the Nazi party's rise to power, Edith Stein was allowed to leave for the Carmelite convent in Echt, the Netherlands, where she immersed herself in the study and translation of the works of Saint John of the Cross. She was eventually arrested by the SS in 1942, along with her sister who had joined her at Carmel. Edith Stein fully accepted that she was Jewish and belonged to the lineage of Christ. "I had stopped practicing the Jewish religion and only after my return to God did I feel Jewish again." Deported to Auschwitz, she was murdered there  at the age of 51. Those who came into contact with her in the extermination camp were struck by her testimony of love, describing her as an "angel of consolation".

Edith Stein was canonized in 1998 by John Paul II, who said of her: "A daughter of Israel who, during the Nazi persecutions, remained united with faith and love to the Crucified Lord, Jesus Christ, as a Catholic, and to her people as a Jew."

Beyond reasons to believe:

• Edith Stein gave many lectures and seminars on the theme of women. She drew on theology, psychology and philosophy to explore the specificity (Eigenart) of women in relation to men, and their respective destinies. In today's societal context, her work remains hauntingly relevant.

Going further:

Edith Stein: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross by María Ruiz Scaperlanda  (Our Sunday Visitor, January 1, 2001

More information:

• Edith Stein: The Life and Legacy of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Sophia, by María Ruiz Scaperlanda  (Institute Press (August 24, 2017)
• The Science of the Cross by Edith Stein - translation by Hidla Graef  (1960, Henry Regnery publisher)
• Article Edith Steinand the Science of the Cross 
• Movie Saint Edith Stein (Docudrama)
• Movie Edith Stein: the Seventh Chamber