Bio

 

 Edith was born in Germany (in an area that is now Poland) to a Jewish family in 1891. She was the youngest of 11 children, and was though her father died early, her mother encouraged all the children to think critically and question their world, and was able to send Edith to University. Edith was very talented and hard-working when she was young and was excited to go to school, despite the fact that she at this point had become atheistic.

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At University, Edith chose to study philosophy until World War I began, during which she served as a nurse. After graduating school and finishing an important thesis on empathy, she became a University professor. She continued to keep reading and questioning the world, and, after reading a biography about St. Teresa of Avila, she became interested in learning about Catholicism. She described her changing ideas like the changing life cycle of a silkworm, full of tough, but beautiful transformations.

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She was baptized not long after, and, because fellow teachers asked her not to enter a secluded religious life immediately, she was able to teach at a Dominican school.

While in this post, Edith accomplished so much. She translated books, wrote more, and worked closely with other philosophers discussing important ideas. None of it was easy, however, because it was still so uncommon for women to have such positions and to have the opportunity to create such meaningful works. Many people dismissed her, and she was denied many positions because of her gender and Jewish heritage. She had just been finally promoted to a new position when, in 1933, we was forced to resign because of the Nazi rise in power.

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Edith, outraged and fearful of what the Nazis might do, wrote a letter directly to the Pope demanding that he condemn them and their actions. He never responded, but did do something similar in a later letter to the Church.

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Edith then decided at this time to formally enter the religious order of the Discalced (shoeless) Carmelites, and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. With the Nazi threat growing, however, she and her sister, who had also converted and become part of the order, were transferred to Holland for safety.

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Edith continued her teaching roles while there, until it became clear that her safety would not last. She predicted that she would not make it through the war, and even began preparing for what life would be like in the concentration camps.

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After religious life did finally condemn Nazism, in retaliation, all people who had previously been Jewish, even if they had converted, were rounded up and taken to the camps.

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Because Sister Teresa had been so calm and faithful, a camp guard who was impressed by her offered her an escape plan, which she refused. She said that if she had to be taken away from her fellow prisoners, who needed her most, it would be devastatingly unfair. She stayed, until all were executed in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. She was canonized 11 years later.