August 9, Feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin and Martyr (Edith Stein)

[DemBones DemBones]

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was the "name in religion" of the philosopher Edith Stein when she became a Carmelite nun. Edith Stein was raised in an observant Jewish family but became an atheist as a teenager.

Edith Stein received a Ph.D. in philosophy summa cum laude but had difficulty finding teaching jobs because she was a woman and because she was Jewish. (It seems that she was probably in the position of many "gypsy academics" today, going from one adjunct teaching job to another.) She converted to Catholicism at the age of 31, continued teaching and writing as the Nazis gained power. Not long after finding a permanent teaching position at a university, she was no longer to work in Germany because of her Jewish heritage. She had long been interested in entering religious life as a Discalced Carmelite and did so at this time, aged 42.

Later she fled to Holland in order not to endanger others in her Carmelite community. She was captured in the Carmelite convent there and died at Auschwitz at the age of 51, offering her life for the people of God.