EDITH STEIN (12 OCTOBER 1891 TO 9 AUGUST 1942)

            We, the comrades of Unit 1012, will remember Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, every year on August 9, as it is her feast day. We remember her as a victim of the Holocaust during World War II. We will post information about her from Wikipedia.

The stamp honoring Edith Stein, which was issued in 1983 by the German Postal Service

Religious and martyr
Born	October 12, 1891 Breslau, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Wrocław, Poland)
Died	August 9, 1942 (aged 50) Auschwitz concentration camp, Nazi-occupied Poland
Honored in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	1 May 1987, Cologne, Germany by Pope Saint John Paul II
Canonized	11 October 1998, Vatican City by Pope Saint John Paul II
Feast	9 August
Attributes	Yellow Star of David on a Discalced Carmelite nun's habit, flames, a book
Patronage	Europe; loss of parents; converted Jews; martyrs; World Youth Day
Controversy	The canonization of a Jewish victim of Auschwitz and the Catholic Church's efforts to convert Jews

Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD

Occupation	Discalced Carmelite nun, spiritual theologian, and philosopher
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, University of Göttingen
Genre	Phenomenology
Subject	Metaphysics, Logic, Philosophy of mind and Epistemology
Notable works	Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt to an Ascent to the Meaning of Being Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities The Science of the Cross

Edith Stein, also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD (German: Teresia Benedicta vom Kreuz, Latin: Teresia Benedicta a Cruce) (12 October 1891 – 9 August 1942), was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to the Roman Catholic Church and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church.

She was born into an observant Jewish family, but was an atheist by her teenage years. Moved by the tragedies of World War I, in 1915 she took lessons to become a nursing assistant and worked in a hospital for the prevention of disease outbreaks. After completing her doctoral thesis in 1918 from the University of Göttingen, she obtained a teaching position at the University of Freiburg.

From reading the works of the reformer of the Carmelite Order, St. Teresa of Jesus, OCD, she was drawn to the Catholic Faith. She was baptized on 1 January 1922 into the Roman Catholic Church. At that point she wanted to become a Discalced Carmelite nun, but was dissuaded by her spiritual mentors. She then taught at a Catholic school of education in Münster.

As a result of the requirement of an "Aryan certificate" for civil servants promulgated by the Nazi government in April 1933 as part of its Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, she had to quit her teaching position. She was admitted to the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Cologne the following October. She received the religious habit of the Order as a novice in April 1934, taking the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross ("Teresa blessed by the Cross"). In 1938 she and her sister Rosa, by then also a convert and an extern Sister of the monastery, were sent to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands for their safety. Despite the Nazi invasion of that state in 1940, they remained undisturbed until they were arrested by the Nazis on 2 August 1942 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they died in the gas chamber on 9 August 1942.

She was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1998. She is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with St. Benedict of Nursia, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St. Bridget of Sweden, and St. Catherine of Siena.