Biography as the Call to Holiness - (Lumen Gentium p. 39)
Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Breslau, Poland. She was the seventh child of a devout Jewish family. As an outstanding student she was well versed in philosophy with a special interest in phenomenology. She dedicated her life to the pursuit of truth beginning with her roots in Judaism followed by her adolescent agnosticism. As God's plan for her life unfolded she became interested in the Catholic Faith. In 1922 she was baptized in the Cathedral Church in Cologne, Germany. Eleven years later she heeded the call to a vocation to religious life and became a Carmelite nun taking the name Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In the Cologne Carmel she began to serve God with prayer, sacrifice and a new dedication to her fellow human beings. In her writings she probed the meaning of suffering and reached for new depths of intimacy with God.

In 1938 the Nazis supported a night of terror - called Kristallnacht - when the city's synagogues, and Jewish businesses and homes were destroyed. With the help of a friend she fled Germany on New Years Eve 1938 for the Carmel Convent in Echt, Holland.

When the Nazis conquered Holland, Teresa was arrested on August 2, 1942 and, with her sister Rose, was deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. She died there in the gas chambers on August 9, 1942 at the age of fifty-one.

In 1987 she was beatified in the Cologne cathedral by Pope John Paul II. She was canonized a saint on October 11, 1998. A year later she was named co-patroness of Europe with St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena.


L I T A N Y

God of Jews..............Lord, have mercy.

God of Christians......Christ have mercy.

God of Martyrs..........Lord, have mercy.

Edith Stein, born on Yom Kippur.............................Blessed be God.

Edith Stein, raised in a strict Jewish home......

Edith Stein, placed in first grade at age six......

Edith Stein, victim of anti-semitism......

Edith Stein, master of Phenomenology......

Edith Stein, graduate magna cum laude......

Edith Stein, assistant to Edmund Husserl......

Edith Stein, teacher and lecturer......

Edith Stein, designer of curriculums for women......

Edith Stein, convert to Catholicism......

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, witness to sacrifice and prayer........................Pray for us.

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, witness to the power of fasting & penance......

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, whose life was dedicated to the search for truth......

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, whose life blossomed in unspeakable evil......

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, who endured suffering by caring for children......

Sr. Teresa Benedicta, who lived as a light undimmed by darkness......

St. Edith Stein, intercessor for students.............................Lead us to God.

St. Edith Stein, healer of Teresia Benedicta McCarthy......

St. Edith Stein, who put everything in God's hands......


Let us pray,
Loving God, in Edith Stein you created a woman who became a seeker of truth. As Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross she gave witness to the truth by her life as a Jew, a Carmelite and a consecrated virgin and martyr. As St. Edith Stein she intercedes for us so that we can transcend our suffering with grace and dignity. Through her life and example may we learn how to put things in your hands and discover, as she did, how to start the next day as a new life. We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and life. Amen.

Composed (2007) by: Rev. Paul G. Mast
Printed by: Benedictine Services and Programs
Not to be copied without permission