Ethan Walker
Edith Stein was a German philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She was born into an observant German Jewish family in 1891 and was executed by the Nazis in 1942 due to her Jewish ancestry. Stein was baptized into the Catholic Church on 1 January 1922. She entered a Carmelite monastery at the age of 43 and became Sister Teresia Benedicta of the Cross. She was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she was murdered in the gas chamber. She is now recognized as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of conversion to Catholicism | 1 January 1922 |
| Became a nun | 1934 |
| Murdered in Auschwitz | 9 August 1942 |
| Canonized as a saint | 11 October 1998 |
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What You'll Learn
Edith Stein's conversion to Catholicism
Edith Stein was born on October 12, 1891, in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) into an observant German Jewish family. She was the youngest of 11 children. By her teenage years, Stein had become an agnostic.
Stein first came into contact with Roman Catholicism while studying at the University of Göttingen. She was introduced to Husserl's Logical Investigations by one of her professors, Georg Moskiewicz, and became an active member of the Göttingen Philosophical Society. Inspired by phenomenology, she transferred to Göttingen in 1913, where she became a student of Edmund Husserl. She also became acquainted with his philosophy, phenomenology, which sought to describe phenomena as consciously experienced.
In 1921, Stein read St. Teresa of Avila's autobiography during the summer holidays and was immediately drawn to the Christian faith. She converted to Catholicism in 1922 and was baptized on January 1 of that year. She took the religious name Teresia Benedicta a Cruce (or Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) in remembrance of Teresa of Ávila and in honour of Benedict of Nursia.
Stein's conversion disappointed her mother and many of her Jewish friends, but her sister Rosa eventually joined her in the Catholic faith. Stein's relationship with her mother suffered after her conversion, but she continued to write to her regularly and empathized with her mother's religious devotion.
After her conversion, Stein gave up her assistantship with Husserl and began teaching at a Dominican girls' school in Speyer from 1922 to 1932. During this time, she translated St. Thomas Aquinas' "De Veritate" into German and familiarized herself with Catholic philosophy. She also visited Husserl and Heidegger at Freiburg in 1929.
In 1932, Stein became a lecturer at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster but was forced to resign due to anti-Semitic legislation passed by the Nazi government. On November 25, 1933, she was admitted as a student to the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Cologne and received the religious habit as a novice in April 1934. She was ordained a Carmelite nun in 1933.
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Her work as a philosopher
Edith Stein was a German philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She was born into an observant German Jewish family and had become an agnostic by her teenage years. Moved by the tragedies of World War I, she took lessons to become a nursing assistant and worked in an infectious diseases hospital. After completing her doctoral thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1916, she obtained an assistantship to Edmund Husserl, working with him from 1916 to 1918. During this time, she also developed her own approach to social phenomena, exploring the experience of self and others, as well as the relationship between individual and communal thinking.
Stein's early work is predominantly phenomenological, influenced by her mentor Husserl, whose work sought to describe phenomena as consciously experienced, without employing theories about their causal explanation. She also translated Thomas Aquinas' "De Veritate" ("On Truth") into German and familiarized herself with Catholic philosophy. Stein's philosophical work during this period focused on phenomenology and the philosophy of psychology, with her major study, "Beiträge zur philosophischen Begründung der Psychologie und der Geisteswissenschaften" ("Contributions to the Philosophical Foundation of Psychology and the Humanities"), published in Husserl's "Jahrbuch".
In her later work, Stein developed an original philosophy of being and essence that integrated Husserlian phenomenology with Thomist metaphysics. She also wrote her last major work, "Endliches und ewiges Sein" ("Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt at an Ascent to the Meaning of Being"), during her time at the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Cologne, where she took on the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. This work reflected her broader ontological concerns and her conversion to Christianity, as she studied and translated the work of Christian thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas.
Stein is known philosophically for her phenomenological work on empathy and affectivity, her contributions as a research assistant to Husserl, and her philosophical anthropology. She was in discussion with leading philosophers of her day, including Husserl, Scheler, Heidegger, Conrad-Martius, Ingarden, and Maritain. Her work contains original approaches to empathy, embodiment, the emotions, personhood, the apprehension of values, collective intentionality, and the nature of the state and social life.
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Her life as a nun
Edith Stein was a German philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun. She was born into an observant German Jewish family in 1891 but became an agnostic by her teenage years.
Stein's conversion to Catholicism was prompted by her reading of the autobiography of the mystic Teresa of Ávila during the summer holidays in 1921. She was baptised on 1 January 1922 and took the name "Teresa Benedicta of the Cross" as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering. She entered a Carmelite monastery when she was 43 years old and became a nun.
Stein had wanted to become a nun immediately after her conversion but was dissuaded by her spiritual advisers, who encouraged her to teach at a Dominican school instead. She gave numerous public lectures on women's issues and translated Thomas Aquinas' "De Veritate" ("Of Truth") into German. She also familiarised herself with Catholic philosophy and tried to bridge the phenomenology of her former teacher, Husserl, to Thomism.
In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with Stein's Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career. She was admitted as a student to the study of religion at the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Cologne in November 1934 and received the religious habit as a novice in April of the same year. Stein took the religious name "Teresia Benedicta a Cruce" (Teresia in remembrance of Teresa of Ávila, and Benedicta in honour of Benedict of Nursia).
Stein's time as a nun was short-lived. In 1942, the Nazis decided to attack "Catholic Jews" in retaliation for a protest letter by the Dutch bishops, decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews. Stein was arrested by the Gestapo on 2 August 1942, along with her sister, Rosa, who had also converted to Catholicism. They were both sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp and murdered in the gas chambers on 9 August 1942.
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Her arrest and murder
Edith Stein was a German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a nun. She was a member of the Discalced Carmelite Order for nine years, from 1933 until her death in 1942. During this time, she took the religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Unfortunately, her life as a nun was marked by the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe, which eventually led to her arrest and tragic death.
In 1933, the Nazi regime came to power in Germany, and its racist and anti-Semitic policies soon threatened Edith Stein and her family. Despite having converted to Catholicism, she was still considered Jewish by the Nazis because of her ethnic background. As the situation deteriorated, Edith's prioress urged her to flee Germany, and she eventually found refuge in the Netherlands, where she joined the Carmelite community in Echt. However, this peaceful interlude was short-lived.
In May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands, and the threat of deportation and persecution loomed once again. Despite the danger, Edith refused a chance to flee to Switzerland, choosing instead to share the fate of her people. In July 1942, the Nazis began rounding up Jewish converts to Catholicism in the Netherlands. On August 2, Edith and her sister Rosa were arrested and sent to the transit camp of Westerbork. From there, they were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.
Upon arrival at Auschwitz on August 7, 1942, the Stein sisters were immediately recognized as "troublesome prisoners" because of some letters they had with them. As a result, they were quickly selected for death. Edith and Rosa were murdered in the gas chambers on August 9, along with nearly 300 other Catholic Jews who had been deported from the Netherlands. Thus ended the life of a courageous woman who had sought to bridge the gap between faith and reason, and whose life exemplified the highest ideals of both Judaism and Christianity.
Edith Stein's courageous stand against the Nazis and her tragic death have since been recognized as a powerful testament to the strength of her convictions. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 and canonized in 1998, becoming St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her feast day is celebrated on August 9, the anniversary of her death.
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Her canonisation
Edith Stein became a Catholic nun in 1933 and remained in this vocation until her tragic death in 1942. During these nine years, she dedicated her life to God and to the service of others, and her journey towards sainthood began soon after her death.
The process of Edith Stein's canonisation began in 1952, just ten years after her murder at Auschwitz. The investigation into her life and virtues was opened in 1957, and she was declared a Servant of God, the first step on the path to sainthood. This initial phase of the process examined her life and writings to determine if she had lived a heroic life of virtue. In 1983, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her Venerable, recognising that she had indeed lived a life of heroic virtue.
The next step required the verification of miracles attributed to her intercession. In the case of Edith Stein, two miracles were investigated and approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The first miracle involved the healing of a little girl in Germany who had fallen into a coma after a severe accident. The girl's family and the entire parish community prayed for the intercession of Edith Stein, and the child suddenly awoke from her coma and made a full recovery.
The second miracle concerned the healing of a deaf woman in the United States. The woman had been born deaf, and her condition had been certified by medical experts. She prayed to Edith Stein, asking for the gift of hearing. After this prayer, her hearing was suddenly and completely restored, with no medical explanation. This miracle occurred in 1978, and like the first, it was thoroughly investigated and found to have no natural explanation.
On May 1, 1987, Pope John Paul II beatified Edith Stein, giving her the title "Blessed." This ceremony took place in Cologne, Germany, and recognised that she had lived a life of exemplary virtue and had heroically witnessed the faith, even unto death. During the beatification Mass, the Pope specifically referred to her as a "daughter of Israel" and a "daughter of the Cross."
Finally, on October 11, 1998, Pope John Paul II canonised Edith Stein, declaring her a saint of the Catholic Church. This ceremony took place in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, and it recognised that she had lived a life of heroic virtue and had obtained the grace of martyrdom. Saint Edith Stein is now revered as a patron saint of Europe and a powerful intercessor for those seeking strength in the face of persecution and for the conversion of hearts.
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Frequently asked questions
Edith Stein was a Catholic nun for around 8 years, from 1934 until her death in 1942.
Edith Stein became a nun in 1934, taking the name "Teresa Benedicta of the Cross".
Edith Stein was inspired to convert to Catholicism and become a nun after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila.
