St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Today is the feast day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein—a Jewish woman, Catholic convert, feminist, philosopher, consecrated religious, and a martyr who died in the holocaust. She is amongst my favorite saints and her writings are incredible, in depth and in insight. Though a progressive feminist for her time, she was dedicated to Catholic orthodoxy.

Much of her writings, particularly in regard to what John Paul II coined as the "feminine genius," is present in John Paul II's Theology of the Body. One of my favorite aspects of her legacy is that she expounded on the idea that men and women are inherently different. She asserted that the human soul is not unisex and manhood and womanhood is reflected not only in our bodies, but in our souls. Therefore, men and women are different, but equal. This is explicit Catholic doctine that she explained beautifully in the framework of the philosophical movement known as phenomenology.

Her faith was incorporated into her worldview, particularly her feminism. She advocated women's place in society—in universities, in the workplace, in public office, etc., but she encouraged women to live out their vocation in these secular professions without compromising the dignity of their womanhood. Stein believed that women could enrich the secular world with their feminine gifts. This is reflective of my own "progressive" views and I really admire the wisdom and boldness of this wonderful saint because it is apparent to me that none of these ideas were her own, but a humble reflection of the already revealed truth of the Catholic faith articulated for the modern world.

St. Edith Stein, pray for us.

A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her Baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Born into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen, she became fascinated by phenomenology, an approach to philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl, one of the leading phenomenologists, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922 when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis.

After living in the Cologne Carmel (1934-38), she moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands. The Nazis occupied that country in 1940. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.

Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta in 1987 and canonized her in 1998.

In his homily at the canonization Mass, Pope John Paul II said: “Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholics and Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: ‘Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.’”

Addressing himself to the young people gathered for the canonization, the pope said: “Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.”