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Teresa Benedict of the Cross Edith Stein (1891-1942) nun,
Discalced Carmelite, martyr
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"We bow down before the testimony of the life and death of Edith
Stein, an outstanding daughter of Israel and at the same time a daughter of
the Carmelite Order, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a personality who
united within her rich life a dramatic synthesis of our century. It was the
synthesis of a history full of deep wounds that are still hurting ... and also
the synthesis of the full truth about man. All this came together in a single
heart that remained restless and unfulfilled until it finally found rest in
God." These were the words of Pope John Paul II when he beatified Edith
Stein in Cologne on 1 May 1987.
Who was this woman?
Edith Stein was born in Breslau on 12 October 1891, the youngest of 11, as her
family were celebrating Yom Kippur, that most important Jewish festival, the
Feast of Atonement. "More than anything else, this helped make the
youngest child very precious to her mother." Being born on this day was
like a foreshadowing to Edith, a future Carmelite nun.
Edith's father, who ran a timber business, died when she had only just turned
two. Her mother, a very devout, hard-working, strong-willed and truly wonderful
woman, now had to fend for herself and to look after the family and their
large business. However, she did not succeed in keeping up a living faith in
her children. Edith lost her faith in God. "I consciously decided, of my
own volition, to give up praying," she said.
In 1911 she passed her school-leaving exam with flying colours and enrolled at
the University of Breslau to study German and history, though this was a mere "bread-and-butter" choice. Her real
interest was in philosophy and in women's issues. She became a member of the
Prussian Society for Women's Franchise. "When I was at school and during
my first years at university," she wrote later, "I was a radical
suffragette. Then I lost interest in the whole issue. Now I am looking for
purely pragmatic solutions."
In 1913, Edith Stein transferred to G6ttingen University, to study under the
mentorship of Edmund Husserl. She became his pupil and teaching assistant, and
he later tutored her for a doctorate. At the time, anyone who was interested
in philosophy was fascinated by Husserl's new view of reality, whereby the
world as we perceive it does not merely exist in a Kantian way, in our
subjective perception. His pupils saw his philosophy as a return to objects:
"back to things". Husserl's phenomenology unwittingly led many of
his pupils to the Christian faith. In G6ttingen Edith Stein also met the
philosopher Max Scheler, who directed her attention to Roman Catholicism.
Nevertheless, she did not neglect her "bread-and-butter" studies and
passed her degree with distinction in January 1915, though she did not follow
it up with teacher training.
"I no longer have a life of my own," she wrote at the beginning of
the First World War, having done a nursing course and gone to serve in an
Austrian field hospital. This was a hard time for her, during which she looked
after the sick in the typhus ward, worked in an operating theatre, and saw
young people die. When the hospital was dissolved, in 1916, she followed
Husserl as his assistant to the German city of Freiburg, where she passed her
doctorate summa cum laude (with the utmost distinction) in 1917, after writing
a thesis on "The Problem of Empathy."
During this period she went to Frankfurt Cathedral and saw a woman with a
shopping basket going in to kneel for a brief prayer. "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. It was something I never forgot. "Towards
the
end of her dissertation she wrote: "There have been people who believed
that a sudden change had occurred within them and that this was a result of
God's grace." How could she come to such a conclusion?
Edith Stein had been good friends with Husserl's Göttingen assistant, Adolf
Reinach, and his wife.
When Reinach fell in Flanders in November 1917, Edith
went to Göttingen to visit his widow. The Reinachs had converted to
Protestantism. Edith felt uneasy about meeting the young widow at first, but
was surprised when she actually met with a woman of faith. "This was my
first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who
bear it ... it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to
shine his light on me - Christ in the mystery of the Cross."
Later, she
wrote: "Things were in God's plan which I had not planned at all. I am
coming to the living faith and conviction that - from God's point of view -
there is no chance and that the whole of my life, down to every detail, has
been mapped out in God's divine providence and makes complete and perfect
sense in God's all-seeing eyes."
In Autumn 1918 Edith Stein gave up her job as Husserl's teaching assistant.
She wanted to work independently. It was not until 1930 that she saw Husserl
again after her conversion, and she shared with him about her faith, as she
would have liked him to become a Christian, too. Then she wrote down the
amazing words: "Every time I feel my powerlessness and inability to
influence people directly, I become more keenly aware of the necessity of my
own holocaust."
Edith Stein wanted to obtain a professorship, a goal that was impossible for a
woman at the time. Husserl wrote the following reference: "Should
academic careers be opened up to ladies, then I can recommend her
whole-heartedly and as my first choice for admission to a professorship."
Later, she was refused a professorship on account of her Jewishness.
Back in Breslau, Edith Stein began to write articles about the philosophical
foundation of psychology. However, she also read the New Testament,
Kierkegaard and Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. She felt that one could not just read a book like that, but had to
put it into practice.
In the summer of 1921. she spent several weeks in Bergzabern (in the
Palatinate) on the country estate of Hedwig Conrad-Martius, another pupil of
Husserl's. Hedwig had converted to Protestantism with her husband. One evening
Edith picked up an autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and read this book all
night. "When I had finished the book, I said to myself: This is the truth."
Later, looking back on her life, she wrote: "My longing for truth was a
single prayer."
On 1 January 1922 Edith Stein was baptized. It was the Feast of the
Circumcision of Jesus, when Jesus entered into the covenant of Abraham. Edith
Stein stood by the baptismal font, wearing Hedwig Conrad-Martius' white
wedding cloak. Hedwig washer godmother. "I had given up practising my
Jewish religion when I was a 14-year-old girl and did not begin to feel Jewish
again until I had returned to God." From this moment on she was
continually aware that she belonged to Christ not only spiritually, but also
through her blood. At the Feast of the Purification of Mary - another day with
an Old Testament reference - she was confirmed by the Bishop of Speyer in his
private chapel.
After her conversion she went straight to Breslau: "Mother," she
said, "I am a Catholic." The two women cried. Hedwig Conrad Martius
wrote: "Behold, two Israelites indeed, in whom is no deceit!" (cf.
John 1:47).
Immediately after her conversion she wanted to join a Carmelite convent.
However, her spiritual mentors, Vicar-General Schwind of Speyer, and Erich
Przywara SJ, stopped her from doing so. Until Easter 1931 she held a position
teaching German and history at the Dominican Sisters' school and teacher
training college of St. Magdalen's Convent in Speyer. At the same time she was
encouraged by Arch-Abbot Raphael Walzer of Beuron Abbey to accept extensive
speaking engagements, mainly on women's issues. "During the time
immediately before and quite some time after my conversion I ... thought that
leading a religious life meant giving up all earthly things and having one's
mind fixed on divine things only. Gradually, however, I learnt that other things are expected of us in this world... I even
believe that the deeper someone is drawn to God, the more he has to `get
beyond himself' in this sense, that is, go into the world and carry divine
life into it."
She worked enormously hard, translating the letters and
diaries of Cardinal Newman from his pre-Catholic period as well as Thomas
Aquinas' Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate. The latter was a very free
translation, for the sake of dialogue with modern philosophy. Erich Przywara
also encouraged her to write her own philosophical works. She learnt that it
was possible to "pursue scholarship as a service to God... It was not
until I had understood this that I seriously began to approach academic work
again." To gain strength for her life and work, she frequently went to
the Benedictine Monastery of Beuron, to celebrate the great festivals of the
Church year.
In 1931 Edith Stein left the convent school in Speyer and devoted herself to
working for a professorship again, this time in Breslau and Freiburg, though
her endeavours were in vain. It was then that she wrote Potency and Act, a
study of the central concepts developed by Thomas Aquinas. Later, at the
Carmelite Convent in Cologne, she rewrote this study to produce her main
philosophical and theological oeuvre, Finite and Eternal Being. By then,
however, it was no longer possible to print the book.
In 1932 she accepted a lectureship position at the Roman Catholic division of
the German Institute for Educational Studies at the University of Munster,
where she developed her anthropology. She successfully combined scholarship
and faith in her work and her teaching, seeking to be a "tool of the
Lord" in everything she taught. "If anyone comes to me, I want to
lead them to Him."
In 1933 darkness broke out over Germany. "I had heard of severe measures
against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid his hand
heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these people would also be
mine." The Aryan Law of the Nazis made it impossible for Edith Stein to
continue teaching. "If I can't go on here, then there are no longer any
opportunities for me in Germany," she wrote; "I had become a
stranger in the world."
The Arch-Abbot of Beuron, Walzer, now no longer stopped her from entering a
Carmelite convent. While in Speyer, she had already taken a vow of poverty,
chastity and obedience. In 1933 she met with the prioress of the Carmelite
Convent in Cologne. "Human activities cannot help us, but only the
suffering of Christ. It is my desire to share in it."
Edith Stein went to Breslau for the last time, to say good-bye to her mother
and her family. Her last day at home was her birthday, 12 October, which was
also the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Edith went to the synagogue
with her mother. It was a hard day for the two women. "Why did you get to
know it [Christianity]?" her mother asked, "I don't want to say
anything against him. He may have been a very good person. But why did he make
himself God?" Edith's mother cried. The following day Edith was on the
train to Cologne. "I did not feel any passionate joy. What I had just
experienced was too terrible. But I felt a profound peace - in the safe haven
of God's will." From now on she wrote to her mother every week, though
she never received any replies. Instead, her sister Rosa sent her news from
Breslau.
Edith joined the Carmelite Convent of Cologne on 14 October, and her
investiture took place on 15 April, 1934. The mass was celebrated by the
Arch-Abbot of Beuron. Edith Stein was now known as Sister Teresia Benedicta a
Cruce - Teresa, Blessed of the Cross. In 1938 she wrote: "I understood
the cross as the destiny of God's people, which was beginning to be apparent
at the time (1933). I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ
should take it upon themselves on everybody's behalf. Of course, I know better
now what it means to be wedded to the Lord in the sign of the cross. However,
one can never comprehend it, because it is a mystery." On 21 April 1935
she took her temporary vows. On 14 September 1936, the renewal of her vows
coincided with her mother's death in Breslau. "My mother held on to her
faith to the last moment. But as her faith and her firm trust in her God ...
were the last thing that was still alive in the throes of her death, I am
confident that she will have met a very merciful judge and that she is now my most faithful helper, so that
I can reach the goal as well."
When she made her eternal profession on 21 April 1938, she had the words of St.
John of the Cross printed on her devotional picture: "Henceforth my only
vocation is to love." Her final work was to be devoted to this author.
Edith Stein's entry into the Carmelite Order was not escapism. "Those who
join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have
been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone."
In particular, she interceded to God for her people: "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 great comfort." (31 October 1938)
On 9 November 1938 the anti-Semitism of the Nazis became apparent to the whole
world.
Synagogues were burnt, and the Jewish people were subjected to terror.
The prioress of the Carmelite Convent in Cologne did her utmost to take Sister
Teresia Benedicta a Cruce abroad. On New Year's Eve 1938 she was smuggled
across the border into the Netherlands, to the Carmelite Convent in Echt in
the Province of Limburg. This is where she wrote her will on 9 June 1939:
"Even now I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete
submission and 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."
While in the Cologne convent, Edith Stein had been given permission to start
her academic studies again. Among other things, she wrote about "The Life
of a Jewish Family" (that is, her own family): "I simply want to
report what I experienced as part of Jewish humanity," she said, pointing
out that "we who grew up in Judaism have a duty to bear witness ... to
the young generation who are brought up in racial hatred from early childhood."
In Echt, Edith Stein hurriedly completed her study of "The Church's
Teacher of Mysticism and the Father of the Carmelites, John of the Cross, on
the Occasion of the 400th Anniversary of His Birth, 1542-1942." In 1941
she wrote to a friend, who was also a member of her order: "One can only
gain a scientia crucis (knowledge of the cross) if one has thoroughly
experienced the cross. I have been convinced of this from the first moment
onwards and have said with all my heart: 'Ave, Crux, Spes unica' (I welcome
you, Cross, our only hope)." Her study on St. John of the Cross is
entitled: "Kreuzeswissenschaft" (The Science of the Cross).
Edith Stein was arrested by the Gestapo on 2 August 1942, while she was in the
chapel with the other sisters. She was to report within five minutes, together
with her sister Rosa, who had also converted and was serving at the Echt
Convent. Her last words to be heard in Echt were addressed to Rosa:
"Come, we are going for our people."
Together with many other Jewish Christians, the two women were taken to a
transit camp in Amersfoort and then to Westerbork. This was an act of
retaliation against the letter of protest written by the Dutch Roman Catholic
Bishops against the pogroms and deportations of Jews. Edith commented, "I
never knew that people could be like this, neither did I know that my brothers
and sisters would have to suffer like this. ... I pray for them every hour.
Will God hear my prayers? He will certainly hear them in their distress."
Prof. Jan Nota, who was greatly attached to her, wrote later: "She is a
witness to God's presence in a world where God is absent."
On 7 August, early in the morning, 987 Jews were deported to Auschwitz. It was
probably on 9 August that Sister Teresia Benedicta a Cruce, her sister and
many other of her people were gassed.
When Edith Stein was beatified in Cologne on 1 May 1987, the Church honoured
"a daughter of Israel", as Pope John Paul II put it, who, as a
Catholic during Nazi persecution, remained faithful to the crucified Lord
Jesus Christ and, as a Jew, to her people in loving faithfulness."
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