To be a Jew is to belong to the Chosen People, to the race of Abraham and finally of Jesus Christ. But the Jews did not recognize Jesus and until now they are still waiting for the Messiah. Our saint for today is Edith Stein, now St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Jew who was converted to Catholicism, became a Carmelite and was martyred during the German persecution. Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) on October 12, 1891. The youngest of eleven children, her mother loved her more than her siblings for she was born on the day the Jews were celebrating “Yom Kippur”, the Jewish Day of Atonement. When she was two years old, her father died and her mother took upon herself the family business and the duty of raising her children. Consequently she neglected the spiritual life of her children and Edith lost her faith in God. In 1911 she enrolled in a university to study German and history, but her real interest was philosophy. She transferred to another university and met philosopher Edmund Husserl, who initiated her knowledge about Christianity. She became Husserl’s teaching assistant and through tutorage received in 1917 her doctorate “summa cum laude. Later, he met Max Scheler, who instructed her about Catholicism. At the beginning of World War I she took up nursing and served in an Austrian field hospital. Meanwhile, her attraction to Catholicism became strong. She read the New Testament, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Thomas Aquinas and Kierkegaard. When she read the life of St. Teresa of Avila she was finally convinced that Catholicism has the Truth. And she decided to follow her footsteps. Edith was baptized as a Catholic on January 1st, 1922. On the feast of the Purification, she was confirmed. After the ceremony, she went to her mother: “Mother, I am a Catholic.” They embraced and wept. Edith wanted immediately to enter Carmel, but her spiritual director told her to wait. She took a teaching job and translated the diaries of Cardinal Newman and St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1933 the persecution of the Jews began. Edith lost her teaching job. Her mother cried: “Why did you become acquainted with Christianity? I don’t say anything against him (Jesus Christ). He may have been a good man, but why did he make himself a God?” Edith’s mother remained in her Jewish faith until death. On October 14, 1933, Edith entered Carmel. The following year, she made her temporary vows. She made her perpetual vows on April 21, 1938. Meanwhile the Jewish persecution by the Germans increased. Synagogues were burned, properties were confiscated and people were arrested and killed. Edith’s superior wanted to send her to a far convent but Edith refused: “If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life in a certain sense is destroyed. Edith was arrested by the Gestapo, together with her blood sister Rosa who was working in the convent, on August 2, 1942. They were brought to a temporary camp, then on August 7 to Auschwitz. Two days later, they were killed in the gas chamber. After World War II, a gat clamor for her recognition as a martyr of the faith arose. Miracles also confirmed the people’s wish. In 1987, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and proclaimed martyr and a saint on October 11, 1988.
