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St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Edith Stein (1891- 1942)

Martyr & Co-Patroness of Europe

Photo of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on October 12, 1891. Through her passionate study of philosophy she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Jesus.

In 1922 she was baptised a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne where she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, during the Nazi persecution and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel.

A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II at Cologne on May 1, 1987, and canonized at Rome twelve years later.

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.

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

Prayer

Lord, God of our fathers,

you brought Saint Teresa Benedicta

to the fullness of the science of the cross

at the hour of her martyrdom.

Fill us with that same knowledge;

and, through her intercession,

allow us always to seek after you, the supreme truth,

and to remain faithful until death to the covenant of love

ratified in the blood of your Son

for the salvation of all men and women.

We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Scripture Readings

Esther 4C:12-16, 23, 25 (or 4:3-5, 12, 14); Gospel - John 4:19-24.

Prayer By ST Benedicta

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

Learn from Saint Thérèse ( The Little Flower) 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

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