St. Edith Stein

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), born in 1891 in Breslau, Poland, was the youngest child of a large Jewish family. In 1922, she was baptized into the Catholic Faith at the Cathedral Church in Cologne, Germany. Eleven years later Edith entered the Cologne Carmel.

Because of the ramifications of politics in Germany, Edith, whose name in religion was Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was sent to the Carmel at Echt, Holland. When the Nazis conquered Holland, Teresa was arrested, and, with her sister Rose, was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Teresa died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of fifty-one.

In 1987, she was beatified in the Cologne cathedral by Pope John Paul II.  She was canonized on October 11, 1998.

Her Feast Day is August 9.