In a world where truth can seem subjective and we may be tempted to become entrenched in ideological affinities, what could a Jewish convert to Catholicism from the early 20th century possibly teach us? As it turns out, quite a lot!
St. Edith Stein was born in 1891 to a Jewish family in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). From an early age, Edith sought after truth. Despite her family’s adherence to Judaism, Edith became an atheist in her adolescence—not seeing the fruit of people’s faith, she came to the conclusion they did not truly believe in the existence of God.
Despite this, she continued her quest for truth in her study of philosophy and advocacy for the rights and dignity of women. Through her studies, Edith encountered the power of the Cross during a reluctant visit with her Protestant professor’s widow: “It was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me—Christ in the mystery of the Cross.” Not long after, Edith read an autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila and became convinced of the truth of the Catholic Faith.
St. Edith Stein entered the Catholic Church in 1922 and joined the Carmelite order in 1933, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In the decade between, Edith devoted herself to scholarly work, translating the writings of Catholic thinkers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John Henry Newman. She continued her intellectual endeavors within the Carmelite order until her work came to an abrupt end upon her arrest by the Gestapo in 1942 due to her Jewish ancestry.
St. Edith Stein died in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, and was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II on October 11, 1998. In April 2024, a request was made to Pope Francis to recognize St. Edith Stein as a Doctor of the Church for her significant contributions to the field of theology in her unrelenting quest for truth. As Catholic News Agency reported in May 2024:
The Carmelites first launched an international commission to gather the necessary documentation required by the Vatican in 2022, a year that marked both the 100th anniversary of Stein’s baptism and the 80th anniversary of her martyrdom.
A title that was proposed for her at the time was “doctor veritatis” because of her relentless intellectual pursuit of truth, which after her conversion she recognized in the person of Jesus Christ.
A number of CHNetwork members have spoken powerfully about the role that St. Edith Stein has played in their conversion, from a Jewish girl who discovered she shared a birthday with St. Edith, to a Messianic Jewish believer who felt St. Edith interceding for him along his journey to the Church, to a family of six who all entered the Church together on St. Edith’s feast day in 2015. And the echoes of her influence continue to ring through in the stories of everyone who discovers Theology of the Body in the course of their journey; Edith’s writings on Christian anthropology had a profound impact on Pope St. John Paul II, and he referenced her often in articulating a truly Catholic understanding of what it means to be a human being.
St. Edith Stein demonstrates how the pursuit of objective truth leads us home to God. “God is Truth. All who seek truth seek God, whether this is clear to them or not.”
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A Prayer of St. Edith Stein
O my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You.
Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me along the next stretch of road before me.
I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down,
a new prospect will open before me and I shall be met with peace. Amen
Prayer from carmelitesofboston.org.
