Edith Stein was born on October 12, 1891, the Day of Atonement, into an observant Jewish family. She later wrote: "My mother laid great emphasis on the occurrence, and I think more than anything else, it made her youngest child especially dear to her... The Day of Atonement is the most solemn of all Jewish holidays, the day when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, taking along the sacrifices to be offered in atonement for himself and all the people, after the scapegoat, burdened with the sins of the nation, had been driven into the wilderness."
Edith Stein was clearly a high strung, independent young child, possessing a precocious mind. As a teenager she struggled with her faith. She studied philosophy and became associated with Edmund Husserl, the father of phenomenology. In 1922 she converted to Catholicism. She entered a Discalced Carmelite monastery, professing final vows in April of 1938. She took the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, in honor of St. Teresa of Avila and St. Benedict of Nursia.
Because of the Nazi program to liquidate the Jews in Europe, Edith and her biological sister, Rosa, were moved from their monastery in Cologne, Germany to the Discalced monastery in Echt, Netherlands for safety. Following the pastoral letter of the Dutch bishops complaining about the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews, all baptized Catholics of Jewish origin were arrested. The Stein sisters were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp near Krakow, Poland. They were murdered on August 9, 1941, in the so-called “Little White House” gas chamber at the rear portion of the camp on August 9, 1942.
With the witness of her life, Sister Teresa Benedicta enfleshes the words of St. Teresa of Avila: "I do not regret having given myself to Love." She was given the title “martyr of love” when she was canonized in 1998.
Her final testament says in part: "I joyfully accept in advance the death God had appointed for me, in perfect submission to his most holy will. May the Lord accept my life and death for the honor and glory of his name, for the needs of his holy Church - especially for the preservation, sanctification and final perfecting of our holy Order and in particular for the Carmels of Cologne and Echt - for the Jewish people, that the Lord may be received by his own and his kingdom come in glory, for the deliverance of Germany and peace throughout the world, and finally, for all my relatives living and dead and all whom God has given me: May none of them be lost."
