Born: October 12, 1891, Breslau, Germany (modern-day Wroclaw, Poland)

Died: August 9, 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp

Nationality: German (of Jewish ancestry)

Vocation: Discalced Carmelite nun, philosopher, theologian 

Attributes: habit, yellow star badge, Hebrew scroll, palm

Patronage: Europe, Jewish people, Holocaust victims, World Youth Day

Beatification: 1987, by Pope John Paul II

Canonization: 1998, by Pope John Paul II

When you seek truth, you seek God whether you know it or not.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was born Edith Stein in the city of Breslau. She was the youngest of 11 children born to a devout Jewish family. When she was still a child, it became clear to many adults around her that she was intellectually gifted and was destined for great things. 

Edith lost her Jewish faith as a teenager and was an atheist for almost the next two decades.

She passed her college exams with ease and was admitted to a prestigious university. Edith studied under pioneering philosopher Edmund Husserl and graduated at the top of her class. She was called to serve as a military nurse during World War I, where she witnessed many young lives cut short.

Inspired by experiences in the war, Edith studied the concept of empathy, writing a dissertation that was very well received by the philosophy establishment. Later, she received her doctorate, which was a feat very rare for a woman of her day. 

Despite all of her acclaim, Edith realized something was missing. After reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Edith stated that “When I had finished the book, I said to myself: This is the truth.” Less than a year later, she was baptized Catholic at the age of 30.

Following her conversion, Edith resumed her academic career, but now she primarily taught in Catholic schools. Edith was eventually called to religious life in 1934, at the age of 34, after the rise of the Nazi Party in her native Germany. She became a Discalced Carmelite nun choosing the name of Teresa Benedicta in honor of the Spanish Carmelite and Doctor of the Church who brought her to the real Truth. 

On August 2, 1942, Teresa and her sister Rosa Stein, who had also converted to Catholicism and became a nun, were arrested by the Nazi Gestapo for their Jewish ancestry. Her last recorded words were directed to her sister "Come, we are going for our people."  Teresa and Rosa were taken to Auschwitz, where one week later, they were killed in the concentration camp’s gas chamber.

St. Pope John Paul II canonized St. Teresa Benedicta in 1998, and named her co-patroness of Europe. 

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, pray for us.