August 6, 2006

TERESA BENEDICTA of the Cross
Also known as
Teresia Benedicta; Edith Stein
Memorial
9 August

Profile

Youngest of seven children in a Jewish family; Edith lost interest and faith in Judaism by age 13. Brilliant student and philospher; with an interest in phenomenology… studied at the University of Gottingen and in Breisgau; earned her doctorate in philosophy in 1916 at age 25. Witnessing the strength of faith of Catholic friends led her to an interest in Catholicism, which led to studying a catechism on her own, which led to “reading herself into” the Faith. Converted to Catholicism in Cologne, Germany; baptized in Saint Martin’s church, Bad Bergzabern, on 1 January 1922.

Carmelite nun in 1934, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross; Teacher in the Dominican school in Speyer, and lecturer at the Educational Institute in Munich. However, anti-Jewish pressure from the Nazis forced her to resign both positions.
Profound spiritual writer.

Both Jewish and Catholic, she was smuggled out of Germany, and assigned to Echt, Holland in 1938. When the Nazis invaded Holland, she and her sister Rose, also a convert to Catholicism, were captured and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where they died in the ovens like so many others.

Born

12 October 1891 at Breslaw, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) as Edith Stein

Died

gassed on 9 August 1942 in the ovens of Auschwitz

Beatified

1 May 1987 by Pope John Paul II in the cathedral at Cologne, Germany

Canonized

11 October 1998 by Pope John Paul II

Patronage

Europe; loss of parents; martyrs; World Youth Day

Additional Information

Pope Proclaims Three New Patrons of Europe - 1 October 1999
John Paul II’s Book of Saints

Readings

Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes. And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
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God is there in these moments of rest and can give us in a single instant exactly what we need. Then the rest of the day can take its course, under the same effort and strain, perhaps, but in peace. And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him — really rest — and start the next day as a new life.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
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Learn from Saint Thérèse to depend on God alone and serve Him with a wholly pure and detached heart. Then, like her, you will be able to say ‘I do not regret that I have given myself up to Love’.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
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O my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You. Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me along the next stretch of road before me. I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down, a new prospect will prospect will open before me, and I shall meet it with peace.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Pope Proclaims Three New Patrons of Europe
Vatican City - 1 October 1999

A German Carmelite of Jewish origin, a Swedish mystic, and a young woman who renewed the papacy with the moral authority derived from the strength of her interior life, have become the three patrons of Europe. John Paul II made this announcement during the Mass for the opening of the special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Europe.

Beginning 1 October 1999, Europe not only has male patron saints, but also three holy women: Edith Stein, Catherine of Sienna, and Bridget of Sweden. The Pope said he is making this proclamation “to emphasize the important role that women have had and have in the ecclesial and civil history of the continent down to our days.” These holy women are examples and intercessors along with Saint Benedict, Saint Cyril, and Saint Methodius.

The Pontiff chose them because they are “connected in a special way with the Continent’s history”. Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and died in Auschwitz, “is a symbol of the dramas in Europe in our time.” Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Sienna worked tirelessly for the Church in the 14th century.

Bridget, founder of a religious Congregation when she was widowed, “traveled through Europe from north to south, working tirelessly for the unity of Christians,” the Pope said. She died in Rome.

Catherine, “humble and dauntless Dominican tertiary, who brought peace to her native Sienna, to Italy, and to 14th century Europe, spent all her energies for the Church, being able to achieve the Pope’s return from Avignon to Rome.

“European Christians and ecclesial communities of all confessions, as well as European citizens and Nations, genuinely committed to the quest for truth and the common good,” will be able to be inspired in this third millennium that will soon begin, with the example of these three women who “admirably express the synthesis between contemplation and action.”

The Search for Truth:

Judaism: One of Edith’s acquaintances, Philomena Steiger of Freiburg, remembers having seen her with the Old Testament in her hand, searching for an answer, especially in the prophetical books, to a deep inner disquiet. Also the Jewish philosopher and friend of Edith, Gertrude Koebner, remembered her serious efforts to return to the religion of her parents. After careful consideration she became convinced that Judaism did not meet her needs. Yet she was never to refute it, as did some other Jewish converts to Christianity. She remained ever respectful.
Protestantism: Not only through her friendship with Adolph Reinach and Hedwig Konrad Martius, focal point of the friends and colleagues of the Husserl circle, did Edith come in contact with Protestantism. The town of Gottingen itself had many evangelical churches and people who did not hide their Lutheran creed. In addition, Edith’s predilection for the religious music of Bach undoubtedly gave her some idea of Protestant sentiment and mysticism. Far more important however was her encounter with the Christian response to grief, to the atrocities of the 1914-18 War, and her introduction to the strength of Christian hope, born of the Cross of Christ.

From:
www.carmelite.com