The life of this wise philosopher, a long time without faith, then in love with God, without shoes Carmelite, mystic, the author of the works of a strong spirit and the victim of the Shoah, will not lost interest. The pilgrimage of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein (1891-1942), declared co-patron of Europe by John Paul II, has the most important history of the twentieth century, with its flaws and contradictions. It was a century in which she – the daughter of Israel – emerged from the discovery and complete integration within herself of the mystery of Christ crucified and risen again.
Edith was born on October 12, 1891 in Breslau, then in Germany, to Jewish parents.. He was orphaned by his father when he was less than two years old. Her mother tried to teach her Judaism, but the girl stopped believing: “With complete conscience and free choice I stopped praying”, she later recalled. She joined a group for the right of women to vote (“… I was a radical woman. Then I lost interest in the whole question. Now I am looking for real practical solutions” ) and became interested in philosophy, in particular Husserl’s. I am phenomenological. Thirsty for knowledge, he enrolled at the University of Göttingen, where he followed the teachings of the famous philosopher: due to his extraordinary intellectual qualities, he soon received the respect of teachers, especially Husserl, and he became an assistant.
In philosophical circles, he met some close friends of the Christian faith. Like a fruit in his search for the truth. In his essay on empathy, he wrote in the last pages: “There are those who, after a sudden change in their nature, believe that they have received the love of God “. At that moment, something hit him. He saw a woman, with a shopping bag, entering the Catholic church for a short prayer «as if she was going to have a close conversation. I can’t forget what happened.” One summer night in 1921, left alone at a friend’s house, his eyes fell on a book: the Hello Saint Teresa of Avila. “I started reading and I couldn’t put it down until I finished. When I closed it, I said to myself: this is the truth.” That’s the secret. On January 1, 1922, Edith was baptized.
In Christianity he rediscovered all the beauty of his roots: “I gave up my Judaism and thought I was a Jew again after I returned to God”. Although he wanted to enter the monastery, he was expected to endure. During the next ten years, he divided his days between prayer and work: he studied in three different Catholic schools, translating the De Veritate of Saint Thomas Aquinas, wrote an essay on Thomistic philosophy which he later expanded into a major work (The Beginning and the Eternal). At the advice of an abbot, he went to study the values of women in the Christian light. He did everything he wanted to do to be “God’s handiwork”. He recited one of his best prayers: “Lord, give me everything that leads me to you. Lord, take away everything that turns me away from you O Lord, separate me and give me all these graces, the last, the most important, there are two. “
In 1933 Hitler came to power, whose great intention he soon foretold in a letter to Pius XI. In June of that year she received “permission” to enter the Carmelite nuns. Edith, who meditated for a long time on the sufferings of Jesus and the sufferings of Mary, then took the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, almost a prophecy about her life. In 1938 he made the perpetual profession of obedience, poverty and chastity. When Nazism showed its face, he thought of a woman from the Scriptures: “I think of Queen Esther who was chosen to intercede before the king for his people. I am little Esther , poor and needy, but the King who chose me is so great and loving. ” On December 31, 1938, to protect him from torture, he his superiors transferred him to the Carmel of Echt, in Holland. But the Nazis, in revenge for the message read by the Dutch bishops in all the churches, arrested him, along with his sister Rosa (also a convert): that is 2 August 1942. “Let us come for our people”, he said to Rose.
They stayed for a few days at the Westerbork correctional facilitywhere a Jew from Cologne met him who remembers him like this: «He stood out for his peaceful life and his quiet nature. The screams, the coughs, the intense pain of the newcomers are indescribable. Sister Teresa Benedetta went among the women like a comforting angel, comforting some and healing others. (…) he takes care of the little children, washes them, wets their hair, gives them food and proper care. For the entire time he was in the camp, he was volunteering around him ” She was transferred with her sister to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died on August 9 in the gas chamber. Like an innocent lamb, like a loving Son, she was ready to this time will shine with him in eternal beauty.