Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Martyr

"Human action cannot help us, but only the sufferings of Christ. My aspiration is to share them" (Edith Stein, Cologne, Germany, 1938).

Edith Stein, a young Jewish philosopher who found Jesus Christ and entered a Carmelite convent as Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Today the Catholic Church honors her as a saint and a martyr who gave her life alongside her Jewish brothers and sisters -- the brothers and sisters of Jesus.