August 09 Saint Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta) (born 1891) was a philosopher, author, who converted to Catholicism and became a nun at Cologne Carmel. She and her sister were arrested at Echt Carmel and martyred at Auschwitz in 1942.
Edith Stein was born at Breslau on October 12, 1891, to German Jewish parents, and after her secondary education, she enroled in the department of philosophy in the city university. In 1913, she transferred to the University of Gotingen to study under Edmund Husserl. Until the age of thirteen years, she was in effect an atheist. She had her first serious encounter with Christianity listening to Max Scheler. In 1916, she continued and completed her studies at Fribourg where she wrote her doctorate directed by Husserl. She remained working in the university until 1921.
During those years, she read the autobiography of Teresa of Avila and became aware of being called to become a Catholic; she was baptized on January 1, 1922. She made her First Communion the same day and was confirmed on the following 2nd February. After her conversion, she felt herself attracted to the religious life but circumstances forced her to delay this decision until 1933. When in 1933 she lost her teaching post as a result of the anti-Jewish laws, she entered into the Carmel at Cologne on October 14, 1933, taking the name of Teresa Benedict of the Cross.
On 31st December 1938 she was moved to the Carmel at Echt in Holland so as to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In 1940, the situation worsened also in Holland. When the prescriptions became more severe, an attempt was made to transfer her to the Carmel in Switzerland. While the arrangements were being negotiated for her move, the deportations of the Jews to the concentration camps began in Holland. Sister Teresa, accompanied by her sister Rosa who had also become a Catholic, was taken to Amersfort on August 2, 1942. On 3rd August 3rd, she was transferred to Westerbork. On August 7th, she and her sister together with other deportees were locked in railway wagons and taken by train to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, a voyage which took two days.
Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross died in the gas chamber the same day that she arrived at the camp at Auschwitz, Sunday, August 9, 1942, and her body was burned in one of the crematoria there. She was beatified on May 1, 1987 and canonized on October 11, 1998 by Pope John Paul II. On October 2, 1999, the same Pope proclaimed her co-patron of Europe.
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