Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

​Today is the Feast of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the cross. She was born into a Jewish family and her parents named her Edith Stein. She was a practicing Jew until the age of fourteen when she stopped believing in God and became an atheist. Her mother was widowed when she was very young and her family faced many hardships. She pursued a successful philosophy career in Germany but she was always seeking the truth. There were two kairos moments in her conversion to Christianity. The first is when she saw a woman enter an empty church to kneel and pray and leave with a peaceful smile. The second is when she picked up a copy of Saint Teresa of Avila's "The Way of Perfection" while visiting her Christian friend one summer. She read the book all night long and when complete she exclaimed that she had finally found the Truth. A year later she was baptized and began her discernment process to join the Carmelite Order. After a decade of waiting she joined the Carmelites in Cologne and received the name Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. During the Nazi persecution she was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers there. Here literary works are very profound especially the book I'm reading at present "The science of the cross" is a gem to be treasured by all Carmelites and everyone. On May 1, 1987 she was beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II.