“Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God.”
Edith Stein (12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942) was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She received the religious name of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross or, in Latin, Sancta Teresia Benedicta a Cruce when she became a Carmelite nun. She is a Carmelite Virgin and Martyr and hers is an equally beautiful story like all other Carmelite saints.
Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Breslau, Poland, and was the youngest child of a large Jewish family. Born into the Jewish faith, her road to faith in Jesus Christ was not an easy one. She was a brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14. But converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher. She was known in Germany as a writer, speaker, phenomenologist, teacher, feminist, and translator.
In 1933 at the age of forty-three, her dreams of entering a Carmelite monastery were finally fulfilled. She moved to a Carmelite Monastery in the Netherlands. After entering the Carmelite convent she prayed especially for Jews in Germany, who were being persecuted under Hitler during World War II. Teresa Benedicta was arrested, along with her sister Rosa, who had also converted, and the other sisters in her religious community. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the gas chamber the same day that she arrived at the camp at Auschwitz, Sunday 9th August 1942. She died for Christ and for his people.
She was canonized at St Peter's Basilica in Rome on 11th October 1998. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was proclaimed a patron saint of Europe in 1999. Pope Francis on August 7, 2019, pointed to Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as a courageous example for the faithful to follow.
No comments:
Post a Comment