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Edith Stein: Patroness of Europe, and Catholic Institute of Technology

Aug 9, 2024
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St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross – also known as Edith Stein – Patroness of Europe, female philosopher, and a patron saint of Catholic Institute of Technology

Today the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein. As Pope St. John Paul II said, Edith Stein “teaches us that love for Christ passes through suffering. Whoever truly loves . . . accepts communion in suffering with the beloved.”

She is commonly known as the Patroness of Europe and of teachers, and she is a patron saint of Catholic Institute of Technology! 

Edith Stein was born in October 1891 in Breslau, Germany (now Poland) during the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur. Her father died when she was only two years old, and while her mother was a devout Jew, Edith Stein rejected all faith in God when she was teenager. Stein studied German and History at the University of Breslau, and there found her main interest in Philosophy and women’s issues of the time.

In 1913, Edith Stein began to study under philosopher Edmund Husserl. After finishing her degree in 1915, Stein worked as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I, caring for the sick and dying. Following the war, she became Husserl’s assistant and completed her doctorate in 1917, writing her dissertation on “The Problem of Empathy.” 

While concluding her thesis, Edith Stein became more interested in the faiths that surrounded her. One day, when walking by the Frankfurt Cathedral, she saw a woman coming from the marketplace go into the Cathedral to pray. Stein noted, “This was something totally new to me. In the synagogues and Protestant churches I had visited, people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation.”

In 1921, Stein read the entirety of St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography in one sitting, and upon finishing it exclaimed, “This is the truth.” She was baptized a few months later in January of 1922. 

Following her baptism, Stein desired to join the Discalced Carmelites, but her spiritual mentors advised her to wait. For the next 11 years, Stein took several teaching positions at Catholic institutions, accepted speaking opportunities, translated letters of Cardinal Newman and works by St. Thomas Aquinas, and eventually began writing her own philosophical works. Then, in 1933, the Aryan Law in Germany forced Stein to stop teaching. She described this experience by saying, “I had become a stranger in the world.” For the sake of her safety, her spiritual advisors no longer saw a reason to detain her from entering the convent. She took her investiture in 1934, and took the name Sister Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, writing, “I understood the cross as the destiny of God’s people, which was beginning to be apparent at the time (in 1933). I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take it upon themselves on everybody’s behalf.” She professed her temporary vows in 1935, and made her eternal profession in 1938.

Teresa Benedicta’s entry to the Carmelite order was not an escape from the world around her, for she understood that her time in Carmel was meant to be used to intercede to God for everyone. She spent much of her time reflecting on her Jewish community, as she wrote, “I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is a great comfort.” But, the War was closing in on her, and in an effort to send Teresa Benedicta overseas, her prioress was able to smuggle her to a Carmelite convent in the Netherlands. There, Teresa Benedicta was able to continue her studies, writing a study of St. John of the Cross and a work titled “The Life of a Jewish Family,” where she discussed how important it was for those of Jewish heritage to bear witness to their culture and faith. 

A few years before her death, she wrote in her will, “Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death . . . so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.”

Teresa Benedicta was arrested on August 2, 1942 while in the chapel; her sister Rosa, who also converted and who served the convent, was arrested with her. The last words that were heard from Teresa Benedicta in the convent were to her sister: “Come, we are going for our people.” They were deported together to Auschwitz on August 7, and it is believed that Teresa Benedicta, Rosa, and many others were killed in the gas chamber on August 9. 

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 1998, and he proclaimed her as the Patroness of Europe. Her works on the mission of women in the work of the Church, philosophical anthropology, and spiritual life are a source of inspiration to many. Through the intercession of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, we pray that we may live in hope while accepting our sufferings for the love of Christ.