Edith Stein

Edith Stein, also Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, informally also known as Saint Edith Stein (born: October 12, 1891 – died: August 9, 1942), was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Born into an observant Jewish family but an atheist by her teenage years, she was baptized on January 1, 1922 into the Roman Catholic Church.

Although Edith Stein wished to enter the Carmel since 1922, she was detered from this by her spirtual leader, archabbot Raphael Walzer OSB who wished her to act in the world as a teacher and speaker for the education of women. Having been forced to quit her teaching position as a result of the Aryan Clause, which was central to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, she entered the Discalced Carmelite Order Monastery of Cologne in October 1933, taking the name Teresia Benedicta of the Cross. She received the habit of the Discalced Carmelites as a novice in April, 1934. Although she moved from Germany to the Netherlands to avoid Nazi persecution, in 1942 she was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died in the gas chamber. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Stein is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Saint Benedict of Nursia, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Bridget of Sweden and Saint Catherine of Siena.