Edith Stein

One

The Search for Truth

Edith Stein was born into a German Jewish family in 1891. As a young woman, she studied under Edmund Husserl, the creator of a system of philosophy called Phenomenology. This was a very important philosophical development because for many hundred years people like Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, and others have claimed we cannot know reality, we cannot know truth, so don’t even try. Phenomenology said that was crazy. We can indeed know reality through our direct experiences. This includes the possibility of encountering and knowing God through these experiences. This philosophical training paved the way for the conversion of Edith Stein. 

Edith would visit her friends for weeks at a time at their farm in Bergzabern. One evening, Edith went through her friends’ library looking for something to read. The book she chose was The Autobiography of Teresa of Avila. Once she started she couldn’t put it down and stayed up the whole night. When she finally finished it the next morning she said to herself, “This is truth.” 

This experience led her to buy a catechism and a missal which she studied so thoroughly, that when she went to the local Catholic Church and asked for Baptism the priest said, “Whoa, this takes time and preparation.” So she said, “Test me.” And she could answer all his questions. Edith was Baptized on January 1, 1922. 

Am I as committed to feeding my soul with truth as Edith Stein was? Do I spend time learning about God and my Catholic faith? In what ways have I given into a life of distraction by spending too much time in news and entertainment, things that don’t really satisfy the hunger of my soul?  

Two

Academic Career 

For the next ten years, from 1922-1932, Edith became a very influential philosopher, writer, and lecturer. 

In 1933 Hitler ordered all Jewish professors be removed from their positions. Edith was offered a chance to escape Germany to South America to teach but two things stopped her.

First, she attended a Eucharistic Holy Hour at the Carmelite Convent in Cologne. About this experience, she writes, “I spoke with the Savior to tell him that I realized it was his Cross that was now being laid upon the Jewish people, that the few who understood this had the responsibility of carrying it in the name of all, and that I myself was willing to do this, if he would only show me how. I left the service with the inner conviction that I had been heard.” 

As Christians we are invited by the Savior to take up our own cross – those things we did not choose, do not like and cannot change – to accept them and offer them up for the salvation of our loved ones and even strangers.

Many of our loved ones and the world at large have distanced themselves from Christ, are we willing to accept and offer up our crosses for their salvation? Or will we just keep trying to complain them away?

Three

Entrance to Carmel 

The second thing that stopped her from going to South America was this: For a long time she had the desire to become a Carmelite Nun but the Abbot refused because he thought she could do more good for the world by her contribution as a Catholic philosopher, writer, and teacher. But now, thanks to Hitler, the door to the academic world was closed. 

Edith knew that God, in His Providence was guiding all things for good. So, when one door closes, God always opens another and better door – this was the door of the Carmelite Monastery.

She writes, “There is nothing to regret about the fact that I can’t continue to lecture. To me a great and merciful Providence seems to be standing behind it all.”

So, at 42 Edith became a Carmelite Nun and took the religious name, Teresa, Blessed by the Cross.

And how about us, can we trust that when the doors of our plans or hopes have closed, we will trust that God in His Providence will only allow this because he is opening up a better door for us to pass through? 

Four

Aushwitz 

In July 1942, the Dutch Catholic bishops publicly protested against the Nazi deportations of Jews. In retaliation, the Nazis arrested all Catholics of Jewish descent in the Netherlands, including Edith Stein.

In the months preceding, Edith had been working on a book on the Science of the Cross according to St. John of the Cross who taught that transforming union with Jesus is the goal of every person’s life and that suffering and death were the greatest means to that goal because they stripped us of all that gets in the way. She finished this work on Sunday, August 2nd, 1942. That afternoon she was arrested by the Gestapo at the Carmel convent in Echt, Netherlands. She was taken along with her sister Rosa, who had also converted to Catholicism and was working as a lay assistant at the convent to the Westerbork transit camp.

A local man tried to bring the prisoners some comfort. He later recounted that while all the other prisoners were literally out of their minds with fear and despair, her composure and self-control were otherworldly. When he started to express his sympathy Edith took his hand, shook it firmly, and assured him that there was no need to worry about them – they were in God’s hands.

On August 7th, 1942, they were deported from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp where Edith Stein and her sister Rosa were murdered in the gas chambers on August 9th, 1942.

Two things allowed Edith to stay peaceful in the midst of the most violent storm. She knew that the goal of life and the way to perfect and everlasting happiness was by union with Jesus Christ, suffering cleared away the obstacle and death was the doorway to perfect joy. And she knew that because God was her Father, then no matter what happened, she would be okay It would indeed be the best. 

Five

Humility and Meekness

One time I was confessing to a priest that I am very intolerant and judgmental of other people. He gave me this quote from St. Edith Stein as my penance.

“If up to now, a person has been more or less contented with himself, the time for that is over. He will do what he can to change the unpleasant things he finds in himself, but he will discover quite a bit that can’t be called beautiful and yet will be nearly impossible to change. As a result he will slowly become small and humble, increasingly patient and tolerant toward toe specks in his brothers’ eyes now that he has so much trouble with the beam in his own. Eventually, he will be able to look at himself in the unblinking light of the divine presence and learn to entrust himself to the power of the divine mercy.”