ST Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is beloved by Catholics across the world for her courage in following God’s call in her life no matter where it led.
Born into an observant Jewish family as Edith Stein in Germany in 1891, it was clear from an early age that she had a profound intellect.
This led her to studying under the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913 at the University of Göttingen.
It was here that she fell in love with philosophy and began a doctorate.
But having heard of the horrors facing soldiers in the First World War, she delayed her study and went to volunteer for the Red Cross.
She served at an Austrian field hospital, specialising in infectious diseases.
Eventually returning to her studies in 1916 at the University of Freiburg, her dissertation on the history and phenomenology of empathy earned her a doctorate in philosophy and she became a member of university’s faculty.
St Teresa Benedicta’s philosophical work proved successful as she established herself as a notable thinker in a time when women were often shunned from academics.
In 1921, St Teresa Benedicta returned to religion after years of spiritual apathy.
During her summer holidays with friends, she read the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila, later recalling that “when I had finished the book… I said to myself, this is the truth”.
By 1922, St Teresa Benedicta was baptised Catholic and began teaching at a Dominican School in Speyer, Germany.
Although she intended to enter religious life immediately after her baptism, her spiritual adviser suggested otherwise, and she spent this time in teaching and philosophy.
She translated works of St Thomas Aquanis into German, continued her work in phenomenology through a Thomistic lens, and was appointed to the Institute for Scientific Pedagogy in Germany.
It was not until 1933 that she joined a Discalced Carmelite monastery, taking her religious name in remembrance of St Teresa of Avila and in honour of St Benedict of Nursia.
Eventually, St Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, a convert and extern Carmelite sister, were moved to a monastery in Echt, Holland, to escape the growing persecution of ethnic Jews in Germany.
By 1942, St Teresa Benedicta and her sister were arrested by Nazi authorities for being Jewish converts and were sent to concentration camps.
Given the opportunity to escape by a Nazi official, St Teresa Benedicta refused to abandon the same fate of her brothers and sisters.
She often told fellow nuns that she expected to die during the war, and hoped her sacrifice may be devoted to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Her prediction came to pass and St Teresa Benedicta and her sister were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where they were killed.
Throughout her life St Teresa Benedicta was led down different paths.
At each turning point, she followed the call of God, giving up what could have been comfortable, reasonable positions in life.
From student to nurse to philosopher, nun and martyr, St Teresa Benedicta had the opportunity, means and intellect to reject what she felt God called her to and settle in any one of these paths.
But her faith won out, and St Teresa Benedicta enjoys the fruit of her labours.
On August 9 the Church remembers St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
