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SAINT EDITH STEIN
 SAINT EDITH STEIN (1891-1941), Sister Teresa Benedicta of the
Cross, was born into a Jewish family at Breslau, then a German town,
now in Poland. With a hunger for truth she studied philosophy and after
gaining a Doctorate summa cum laude (literally, with highest
praise) she embarked on an academic career. A period of atheism was
followed by a search ending in her conversion to Roman Catholicism in
1922 after reading the life of St Teresa. At the same time she maintained
a lifelong love for her Jewish heritage and people. Until Hitler and
the Nazis came to power in Germany she exercised a very active apostolate
of service to the Church: speaking, writing and teaching on matters
philosophical, theological and feminist.
Her apostolic zeal took a new direction in 1933 when she entered the
Carmel at Cologne taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Prayer
now became her sole work for the Church and for her suffering Jewish
people. For her safety she was later transferred to the Dutch Carmel
of Echt. There she, with other converts from Judaism, was arrested by
the Nazis in retaliation for the Dutch bishops outspoken condemnation
of anti-Semitism. As she left her Carmel for the gas chambers of Auschwitz
she said: 'I am going for my people'. She died there in August 1941.
Her feast day is kept on 9 August.
> Edith Stein as Co-Patron of Europe (by Pope
John Paul II)
> Edith Stein: Doctor of the Church?
St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Edith Stein
"The way of faith gives us more than
the way of philosophical thought: it gives us God, near to us as person,
who loves us and deals with us mercifully, giving us that security which
human knowledge cannot give. But the way of faith is dark". [Endliches
und ewiges Sein 58]
Edith Stein walked this dark road without flinching, secure as the
baby who abandons itself to its father. By that dark way of faith she
reached "the highest perfection of being, which is at once knowledge,
the gift of the heart, and freedom of action".[Ibid
421]
Born at Breslau on 12th October 1891, on the Jewish festival of Yom
Kippur, the youngest of seven children, she did her first studies
in philosophy in her native city. Later she moved to Gottingen to follow
Edmund Husserl, philosophical genius and father of phenomenology. At
his school Edith was to take no further interest in religion, retaining
only the moral stamp of her Jewish upbringing. Through the study of
phenomenology, however, she began gradually to discover the religious
world and Christianity, later becoming a Catholic. A turning point in
her life was her reading of the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila.
On a mysterious June night in 1921, finding herself a guest in the house
of a philosopher friend, she received a profound intuition of God-Truth.
All became light for her: she was baptised on January 1st 1922, receiving
at the same time a vocation to Carmel.
Twelve years were to pass, however, before she entered the Carmel
of Cologne. This was a period of teaching, lecture tours and study,
during which she matured interiorly. Perhaps she might not have succeeded
in becoming a religious but for the political situation in Germany,
and had not the increasingly anti-Semitic measures there made it impossible
for her to continue her teaching at the Institute for Scientific Pedagogy
in Munster.
Despite family opposition Edith became a Carmelite nun, taking the
name of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was quickly to feel
the weight of the "cross" on her shoulders. Following the
discovery by the authorities of her non-Aryan origins, she was no longer
safe behind monastery walls; so in the early hours of New Year's Day
1939 she was taken to Holland, to the Carmel of Echt. It seemed a tranquil
place, yet she had a premonition that she should not escape the destiny
of her people. In fact while she was writing her book on the doctrine
of St John of the Cross, significantly entitled The Science of the
Cross, two officials of the occupation forces came to the monastery.
She had to go with them, together with her sister Rose, also a convert,
who had joined her in Echt.
Before being deported to Auschwitz, Edith was able to send a message
to Carmel. Then with the convoy which brought them to Auschwitz, the
Stein sisters entered the shadow of death. On August 9th, 1942, the
holocaust of Edith reached its consummation in the gas chambers. Pope
John Paul II who already in 1987 had publicly proclaimed the sanctity
of this daughter of St Teresa, and the martyrdom of this Jewess returned
to the bosom of the Church, on 11th October 1998 solemnly canonized
her at Rome.
This brief biographical sketch reveals
three distinct stages in the life of Edith Stein, the first being her
childhood, adolescence, and her philosophical studies and work as assistant
to Husserl. These were thirty important years, particularly for the
human and religious development which ended in her conversion. The second
stage covers twelve years of intense Christian life, of interior and
intellectual maturing, of patient and hidden preparation for Carmel
in absolute fidelity to the grace of vocation. With her entry to the
Carmel of Cologne begins the third period of her life, a time of suffering
and assimilation to Christ, which brought her to the heights of the
mysticism of the Cross. This stage ends in the "white house"
of the extermination camp with her supreme offering of her life for
the Church, and for the salvation of the Jewish people. These three
stages are marked in her by a great desire for totality, by a profound
longing for the Absolute, and by a constant and impassioned seeking
of the Truth, of God himself. This is the reason too why every step
forward in her search for the Faith included also, almost of necessity,
a burning desire for the most radical form of Christianity, namely the
monastic life, in order to live it to the full. 1. The Search for
Truth
Despite her religious upbringing Edith quickly lost her Jewish faith,
under the influence of rationalistic teaching at school. This may be
noted also in other young Jews - for example, in Simone Weil and Franz
Rosenberg - and ought not to be attributed simply to family difficulties.
The Jewish religion was presented to them solely in the form of ethical
idealism, and they believed themselves within their rights to demonstrate
its defects and weaknesses. Such a critical stance led Edith to a neutral
position in regard to God, and a refusal of all religious practice.
In the meantime she concentrated on the search for intellectual principles
and values which she considered more elevated than those of the Jewish
faith. This solitary research brought about a state of increasing tension,
and of unremitting efforts to find solutions to existential questions;
stress which lasted all through her years of study to the moment of
her conversion.
On this difficult journey she met Edmund Husserl. Reading his Logiscye
Untersuchungen (Logical Investigations), she found in Phenomenology
a most valid and apt philosophical system which was to sustain her in
her search for Truth, unfolding before her new horizons of knowledge
to which she was always open. Next we find her at Gottingen to pursue
her studies at the school of the great German philosopher. Soon she
became his most gifted student; and when she had brilliantly completed
her studies with a doctorate summa cum laude, he took her on
as his assistant and collaborator.
The phenomenological method had a positive influence on her research
into the essence of things, freeing her from narrow preconceptions and
leading her to a state of total impartiality (Voraussetzungslosigkeit)
without which she would have been incapable of opening herself to the
thought of God with that absolute objectivity of judgement so characteristic
of her. Nevertheless it was not the mental processes of the young phenomenologist
which disclosed to her the world of Faith, that "perfectly new
world" hitherto to her "completely unknown", as she writes.
Neither was it the circle in which she moved, the friends and colleagues
of Husserl; chiefly Max Scheler and Adolph Reinach. She writes that
Max Scheler, not long a convert, "did not lead me to the Faith,
but he opened to me a new sphere of phenomena which I could not ignore.
Not for nothing (in the Husserl school) was it constantly repeated that
we must examine all things whatsoever without presuppositions, throwing
away all blinkers. Thus collapsed the barriers of rationalistic prejudice
in which I had unknowingly grown up, and the world of Faith unfolded
suddenly before me". [Aus dem Leben einer jüdischen
Familie 57.]
This new knowledge, however, resulted in pressing questions for Edith.
She wanted to clarify the religious problem, to understand what relationship
there could be (or there should be) between herself and God.
To interpret this relationship as an abstraction seemed to her absurd,
inclined as she was to relate everything to concrete reality. Should
she then imagine the relationship idealistically or romantically? That
could never be for her, always striving to grasp things in their deepest
essence, without which nothing had value in her eyes. Would it not be
easier then to discount the existence of God? But Edith was never one
to choose the easy way. In her whole life she always chose the tough
ascent.
Through struggles, nervous crises, misunderstandings and periods of
intense suffering, Edith began to weigh up the three possible ways of
living the Faith as presented by her environment Judaism, Protestantism
and Catholicism subjecting each to a rigorous and impartial evaluation.
Judaism:
One of Edith's acquaintances, Philomena Steiger of Freiburg, remembers
having seen her with the Old Testament in her hand, searching for an
answer, especially in the prophetical books, to a deep inner disquiet.
Also the Jewish philosopher and friend of Edith, Gertrude Koebner, remembered
her serious efforts to return to the religion of her parents. After
careful consideration she became convinced that Judaism did not meet
her needs. Yet she was never to refute it, as did some other Jewish
converts to Christianity. She remained ever respectful.
Protestantism: Not only through her friendship
with Adolph Reinach and Hedwig Konrad Martius, focal point of the friends
and colleagues of the Husserl circle, did Edith come in contact with
Protestantism. The town of Gottingen itself had many evangelical churches
and people who did not hide their Lutheran creed. In addition, Edith's
predilection for the religious music of Bach undoubtedly gave her some
idea of Protestant sentiment and mysticism. Far more important however
was her encounter with the Christian response to grief, to the atrocities
of the 1914-18 War, and her introduction to the strength of Christian
hope, born of the Cross of Christ.
In 1917 she was at Freiburg, assistant to Husserl. One day she received
news of the death of Adolph Reinach on the field of battle. His wife
and other friends asked Edith to come and sort his papers and various
philosophical writings. She hesitated at first, feeling she had no words
to comfort his wife, believing her to be desperate in her grief. When
she met the young widow, however, she was struck by her resigned, almost
serene attitude. In this attitude Edith grasped immediately the strength
of the Christian Faith. The gates of an unknown kingdom had suddenly
been thrown open, the kingdom of Christian Hope. Relating this experience
many years later to the Jesuit, Fr Hirschaum, she confessed: "This
was my first meeting with the Cross, with the divine strength it brings
to those who bear it. I saw for the first time within my reach the Church,
born of the Redeemer's sufferings in his victory over the sting of death.
It was at that moment that my incredulity was shattered and the light
of Christ shone forth, Christ in the mystery of the Cross".
These words were spoken years later when Edith felt the full weight
of the Cross bearing down on her persecuted people. Back in 1917 she
had discovered from this experience that all her rationalistic and atheistic
arguments were as nothing in comparison with the Christian Faith. Comparing
herself with this deeply Christian woman, she realised that Christianity
could offer her essential value-guides in the search for Truth. She
realised the importance of faith in God, in order to free people from
existential anguish, and to experience that "transcendental peace"
which, in the phenomenology of Husserl, derives exclusively from the
action of God in the soul. The serenity and trust of the widow Reinach
had taught Edith that this "transcendental peace" is identical
in the Christian Faith with the strength of the Cross of Christ, accepted
in the hope of resurrection to immortal life. Only the meeting with
Christ dead on the Cross can enable interior peace to be found and to
sublimate suffering.
However Edith did not yet reach a decision. This was the beginning
of a long period of struggle, of crises which taxed to the utmost her
intelligence and will. There were dramatic moments of conflict with
the past and with herself, to the extent that she felt plunged into
a "silence of death". She tried at times to flee from the
action of the Holy Spirit: "I can adhere to the Faith, seek it
with all my strength, without the need to practise it" [Psychische
Kausalität 43.] On the other hand she is convinced: "When believers
receive an order from God, whether in prayer or through the representative
of God, they must obey!" [Untersuchung über
den Staat 401]
Catholicism: For a span of three or four years Edith embarked on a period of intense
reflection. She read numerous books on Christian spirituality, books
by saints and Catholic authors, trying at a spiritual level to find
a way out, but also for pedagogic and cultural reasons. One day she
bought a book on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. She
began by getting involved in the Exercises at a purely psychological
level, but after a few pages she found this impossible. She ended up
"doing" the Spiritual Exercises, though still an atheist,
yet athirst for God as Fr Erich Przywara testifies, who was close
to her in the 1922-30 period. However, not even Ignatius succeeded in
giving her final certainty, even if his positive influence cannot be
excluded insofar as he predisposed her to the ultimate decision which
she was to take after reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila.
In June 1921 she went to Bergzabern, to the home of a friend Hedwig
Konrad Martius, a regular meeting place of the Husserl past-pupils.
(They no longer went to Freiburg where Husserl was teaching at the university,
as they felt unable to follow his lead towards Transcendental Idealism).
Edith discovered in the library the autobiography of the great Spanish
mystic, the Book of the Life. Its reading had a profound effect
on her: she closed the book exclaiming "This is the truth!",
that "truth" she had sought so passionately for so many years.
We are told that Edith read and assimilated the whole book in a single
night. That a person even so keenly intelligent as Edith should, in
the space of a few hours, grasp so completely the spiritual world and
the inner journey of the Saint, to the point where she (Edith) could
reach immediately and decide to embrace Catholicism, seems highly improbable.
It is perhaps more likely that on the night in question, she completed
a previous reading of the Life with particular attention to the
chapters on the experience of God. With the affirmation God is Truth
as the terminal point of long suffering in the search for God, St Teresa
of Avila in fact enriched Edith with the basic dimension of human existence
which she had so earnestly sought. Everything is contained in the words
"to walk in the truth, in the presence of Truth itself".
[Life 40:3] On that night Edith could finally
say, with the holy Reformer of Carmel; "The truth so kindly revealed
to my soul is Truth itself, without beginning or end. From this all
other truths depend" [Life 40:4]. Her conversion
to Catholicism then is the full and conscious acceptance of the one
Truth, mystically experienced by Teresa, and so long and unconsciously
sought by Edith.
Edith at once took the Spanish saint as her model in the new life
of faith she wished to follow, with a view also to becoming a Carmelite
nun. In her genuine need always to take the most radical road, the choice
of Carmel seemed the only adequate response to satisfy her desire for
totality. Thirty years old, full of energy and enthusiasm, she wished
her faith to be an integral part of her life. Thus we may say that her
journey of faith coincides with her religious vocation.
The Years of Waiting
Edith was baptised on January 1st 1922. But her entrance to Carmel
was still many years away. She accepted the delay with serenity and
trust in God. In a letter of 1934 she says, "If my vocation to
the convent is authentic, it will enable me to bear the period of trial.
If on the other hand it is an illusion of first fervour, far better
to discover this outside the convent than inside, with the resulting
bitter disappointment" [Letter to Ruth Kantorowicz]. On the other
hand she knew well that the Carmelite vocation was "a grace wholly
undeserved", dependent entirely on the will of God. For us, "it
is not possible to make plans, to take decisions...." We must "make
the future a question of God's will, and abandon ourselves to him".
Reconsidering her disposition of perfect conformity to the plans of
God, Edith came to enjoy "a state of repose in God, of complete
spiritual relaxation in which one makes no plans of any kind, one makes
no resolutions, in a word one simply does nothing.... This repose in
God, consequent on lack of activity for want of natural energy, is something
entirely new and extraordinary. Where before there was the silence of
death, there is now the feeling of being hidden.... When I surrender
myself to this impulse, a new life begins little by little to fill me...
The life-giving movement is due to no effort whatever on my part"
[Psychische Kausalität 76]
Edith wrote these words (published in 1922) shortly after her conversion,
which she considered to be the beginning of her preparation for the
Carmelite life. She began to gain first-hand knowledge of the Religious
Life when she went as teacher for some years to the Dominican Sisters
at Spires, and later at the Marianum in Munster. At Spires she adapted
completely to the discipline of the house. She led an exemplary life
of prayer, edifying everyone by her absolute fidelity to her duties
as teacher of German at the Girls' Lyceum and at the higher Institute.
Soon she was entrusted with the young Dominican Sisters who were training
as teachers, and also the postulants. Records stress unanimously the
uncommon teaching ability of Edith, and her capacity to capture the
hearts of the students. "She was a shining example to us all. She
trod silently the path of duty with modesty and simplicity, ever constant,
friendly and open to all those who sought her help". Fr Erich Przywara
wrote of her, "At St Magdalen's in Spires she was not only the
best of teachers, but had also a formative influence on the Sisters
and young religious, thanks to the discernment of the Prioress. St Magdalen's
owes to Edith its best personnel, who today recognise that Edith was
really their mistress of novices" [Edith Stein
in : In und Gegen 24].
In her free time Edith was already the contemplative of the Teresian
Carmel. The need to lose herself in silent converse with God present
in the tabernacle, was in line with the concept she had of religion
as a personal relationship, a "friendship" with God who is
present, as she had read in the Life of St Teresa. That same characteristic
line of enquiry shown in her philosophical research was evident also
in the first years of her Christian life, and was decisive in her efforts
to give herself completely to the Lord, cutting herself off from the
"world", and "occupying oneself solely with the thought
of things divine" in solitude. The early experiences at Beuron
and contact with liturgical prayer accompanied her first steps to overcome
the narrowness of her own convictions. She began to appreciate the value
of a universal dimension, of "objective" or liturgical prayer,
which in its turn has need of the individual prayer so preferred by
Edith. Liturgical prayer must necessarily have a wide and central place
in the Christian and ecclesial life.
The second step which Edith had to take was a return to philosophical
work. Fr Przywara convinced her that philosophy neither opposes nor
disturbs the life of faith. And not only that. He also deemed it necessary
that Edith should study Christian philosophy where the genius of St
Thomas Aquinas had predominated for centuries. He even asked her to
do a translation of Quaestiones disputatae de Veritate, a difficult
task for a phenomenologist without specific preparation. She produced
a brilliant translation, however, placing the phenomenological method
at the service of scholastic thought. But to find time for all this,
she had to give up her post at the Dominican Lyceum at Spires.
This however was not the only reason. By now Edith, through her conferences,
had become widely known and appreciated throughout Catholic Germany.
Some professors at this stage encouraged her to seek a post at one of
the Universities, but almost immediately this became impossible because
of her Jewish background. Already by 1931-32, anti-Semitism had begun
to make itself felt in Germany. So Edith accepted a post at the Institute
of Scientific Pedagogy in Munster, taking up duty there in the spring
of 1932. Before that, however, she visited Beuron to confer with the
Arch-Abbot, Raphael Walzer, about her desire to enter Carmel. It was
not the first time he had heard of it. From her earliest meeting with
him back in 1922, she had spoken of her vocation. But each time she
had received the same reply, "See that you do for the Church what
she expects of you". She received similar advice from Monsignor
Schwind, who had directed her at Spires for some years, "Let the
Church received from you the service she awaits, in the world of teaching.
You must take this into consideration".
Such reserve about her vocation to the cloister on the part of her
directors was prompted also by concern for her mother, the elderly Augusta
Stein. The conversion of her daughter to Catholicism was a stunning
blow to this strong woman, who had never before been seen to weep until
Edith told her of the step she had taken. To tell her now of plans to
enter a cloister seemed to everyone almost inhuman, a sacrifice impossible
to demand from a mother. Edith was nonetheless convinced of her call
to Carmel. She was ready for the supreme sacrifice of a total break
with her mother, and indeed with her family too who could not be expected
to understand. This readiness of Edith stemmed from continuing fidelity
to the dynamic development of her baptismal grace, which coincided in
her with the grace of vocation.
Her conferences and research on the ethic of the female professions
reflect this fidelity. In a word, the feminine specific hold that "God
alone can fully receive the gift of self from a human being, so as to
fill her soul without losing anything of himself. For this reason the
unconditional gift of self, which is the basic principle of the religious
life, is at the same time the only possible realisation of a woman's
aspirations" [Formation and Vocation of the
Woman 106]. This was Edith's goal. This gave her the strength to
rise above all discussion and the judgements of her social circle. Once
she had said Yes to the Lord, absolutely nothing would bring
her to reverse her decision. She could not do otherwise than apply to
life her outstanding logical thinking. To fulfil herself as a woman
and a Christian, she could see no other way except the unconditional
gift of herself to God in Carmel.
At the Carmel of Cologne
In 1933, with the coming to power in Germany of National Socialism,
the pro-Aryan measures came into force. Edith therefore could no longer
teach at the Institute of Munster. She first came to know of the persecution
of the Jews, victims of fanatical racism, through an American newspaper.
She suffered bitterly: yet she turned down the chance of going to South
America, where she had been offered a Chair. She seemed mysteriously
to know that her destiny was to be that of her own people.
The final lecture of Doctor Stein took place at the Marianum of February
25, 1933. A month later she went to Beuron for Holy Week, and to speak
again with Arch-Abbot Walzer of her wish to enter Carmel. In the church
of St Ludger at Munster she prayed before a great Crucifix for definitive
guidance: "I will not leave here", she said, "until I
receive a clear answer about my entrance to Carmel". It was she
herself who told this in an account of her journey to Carmel, written
on December 18, 1938, and given to the Prioress some days later as a
Christmas gift. "By the Final Blessing I had already received the
consent of the Good Shepherd", (liturgically celebrated that year
on Sunday April 30).
She had already obtained the consent of her spiritual director, Fr
Raphael Walzer. He realised that a public university career was no longer
possible for Edith. But in his letter of recommendation to the Carmel
of Cologne he expressed some reservations: the elderly mother of the
postulant, and Edith's important work on behalf of Catholic life in
Germany. Still he could not but highlight "her religious maturity
and her depth, which spoke for themselves... For a long time Carmel
has been her ideal".
Notwithstanding her age (42), her Jewish parentage, and her conversion
at the age of thirty, Doctor Stein was accepted by the community. Before
entering Cologne Carmel she spent a month living in the extern quarters
and joining in the Liturgical Hours from the public chapel. She had
occasion also for chats in the parlour with the Prioress and the Mistress
of Novices. The impression she made on the community coincides undoubtedly
with the recommendation of her pastor and confessor at Munster, Dean
of the Cathedral there, Doctor Adolph Donders: "Doctor Stein is
a privileged soul, rich in the love of God and neighbour, full of the
spirit of Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy.... She will be for all a
model of profound piety and fervour in prayer, a joy for the community,
full of goodness and love for her neighbour.... She has achieved much
by word and pen, especially in the Association of Catholic Students
and the Union of Catholic Women. Nevertheless she wishes to give up
all external activity in order to meet in Carmel the 'pearl of great
price' Jesus Christ, following the example of St Teresa".
The Nuns too, seeing Edith lost in prayer, were able to assess the
level of interior life reached by the postulant. Edith herself recalls
the significance for that same interior life of the training in liturgical
prayer she received at Beuron. But she also added that the idea of becoming
a Benedictine had never once entered her head, "I always had the
impression that the Lord had something reserved for me which I could
find only in Carmel". Thus she wrote in 1938, adding, "This
made an impression!"
October 14 was the date fixed for Edith to cross the threshold of
Carmel. She had previously written home to say that she had been accepted
in a house of Sisters in Cologne. Her family, thinking she had got a
new job, sent their congratulations. In mid-August she went to Breslau
for the final farewell to her mother, brothers and sisters, of whom
she was to see again only Rose, and Arno briefly when he was passing
through Cologne on his way to America. In the account written by Edith
for Mother Teresa Renata, she describes in detail her last meeting with
her mother. It is perhaps the most moving page in Edith's earthly life,
that which best shows the depth of her feelings and emotions. "What
I went through was frightening", she admits. Finding herself alone
in the train back to Cologne, "no exuberant joy" could fill
her heart. In her own words, "Too frightening was that which I
had left behind! Nevertheless I was in a state of deep calm safe in
the harbour of the Divine Will".
The Postulant
After first Vespers of the Feast of St Teresa of Jesus, the enclosure
door opened. Edith "crossed the threshold in profound peace, to
enter the House of the Lord". She carried a great bouquet of white
chrysanthemums, brought by some teachers who had come to see her. The
community received her warmly, just like any other postulant. For many
of them who had never heard her name, so well known in intellectual
circles, she was simply the postulant already destined for the new foundation
at Breslau. They considered her on a par with her three companions in
the novitiate. She would wear a plain black dress with a short mantle,
and a small black veil to cover her long hair. She was then shown to
her cell, simple and austere as prescribed by the Rule, with a great
Cross on the wall, a straw mattress, some blankets, a small table and
chair, and on the floor a basin and jug for washing. Her books, sent
ahead in six crates neatly divided in philosophical, theological and
psychological categories, ended up in the library. If she wished to
use them, she would have to seek the Mistress's permission.
But Edith had no plans for the moment to continue her intellectual
work. Her first task was to learn the horarium of the House, the ceremonies,
the customs and especially the wide range of womanly work of which she
knew next to nothing. Working in the kitchen often required very great
effort, as she had never before had to think of cooking and preparing
food. An elderly nun asked if she could sew. She had indeed learned
a stitch or two, but could not hope to reach the perfection of all the
other Sisters. She had no shortage therefore of humiliations, accepted
serenely without discouragement, convinced they were for her "a
good school of humility", as she said in a letter; necessary "after
so many honours received during my life".
Externally Edith seemed to the others always serene, balanced, humble,
charitable, adaptable to any situation, sympathetic to the joys and
sorrows of her companions her juniors by twenty years at least (two
simply-professed sisters and a novice). At recreation she was vivacious,
happy, with an endless fund of stories to tell; always ready too with
the helping word of spiritual uplift, so enriching to the hearer. She
celebrated her first Christmas in Carmel with especial, almost childish,
joy. On the mystery of Christmas, she had said in a lecture of 1930
at Ludwigshafen: "Let us put our hands in those of the Divine Babe,
let us say our Yes to his invitation 'Follow me', and we will
be his. The way will be clear for his divine life to become incarnate
in us. It is precisely this that is the light come through the darkness,
a light kindled in the soul the miracle of Christmas". But she
had also said that "upon the same light, shining so brilliantly
in the manger, comes the shadow of the Cross. The road leads irresistible
from Bethlehem to Golgotha, from the manger to the Cross".
Edith experienced profound peace, it is true, on that first Christmas;
peace for which she thanked the Lord, deeming it "a grace wholly
unmerited". But in her heart was the thought of her mother, unable
to accept her daughter's decision. Every week, punctually on a Friday,
she had as always her letter ready for her mother. But now there was
never an answer. Perhaps in the long winter nights in the silence of
her cell, she re-lived the anguished moments of that last day, October
12, her birthday, which she had passed with her mother. Having accompanied
her to a service at the synagogue of the Rabbinical School, during the
return trip on the tram she explained that the first years in the religious
life were a period of trial only. But her mother replied, "If you
undertake a trial, you will certainly succeed". During the evening,
then, a long period of weeping from the old lady. Edith had held her
in her arms, pressing the old white head to her breast, remaining like
this until very late. Then she had helped her to undress, sitting long
on her bed to be near her, until her mother ordered her to take some
rest herself. Memories seared into the soul of Edith, and perhaps a
source of disquiet to her conscience, especially because of the rising
persecution of the Jews, already experienced by her family. She herself
could still live in peace. But her mother? And for how long?
The Novice
On February 15, 1934, the vote took place to admit Edith to the Noviciate.
Some days before, she was visited by the doctor who found her in excellent
health. Any objections? That Edith had brought no dowry was not considered
a problem. At any rate she would go to Breslau for the foundation. The
future would take care of itself.
The Clothing was fixed for April 15, Feast of the Good Shepherd, and
precisely one year to the day since she received a special grace before
the Crucifix at St Ludger's in Munster. Present were personalities from
the world of high culture and from the Catholic organisations closest
to her. Indeed such a select gathering in the chapel of the Carmel of
Cologne had never before been seen! Edith wore a white bridal gown,
the silk being a present from her sister Rose. No one came from her
family, though she received some letters. Arch-Abbot Raphael Walzer
presided at the Mass, and Husserl sent a telegram. Among the guests
were her friends Hedwig Konrad Martius and Peter Wust, who would later
write an article for the Kölner Volkszeitung on the journey of
Edith towards the Truth, that which includes the philosophy of Reason
and Mysticism, a journey symbolically expressed by her new name "Sister
Benedicta, she who is 'blessed' by the Truth with all the fulness of
the Truth".
Edith chose this name because she felt 'blessed' by Christ who was
victorious on the Cross; 'blessed' after a long journey and night-long
struggle similar to that of Isaac with God on the banks of the River
Jabboth; 'blessed' among the women of the Jewish people by the bridal
love of Christ crucified; 'blessed' in having been chosen by God to
live her "ecclesial espousal" under the sign of the Cross,
in sacrifice and expiation.
Little is known of her noviciate year. In the first biography, written
by her Mistress and later Prioress, Mother Teresa Renata (published
in 1948 at a time when there was absolutely no thought of a future canonization),
her absolute fidelity to the horarium and the community acts was noted,
and her strict punctuality; qualities not at all easy for someone involved
in intellectual work. The Provincial in fact had ordered that Sister
Benedicta be dispensed from all other tasks, in order to give her enough
time to finish her work Potency and Act, which she had been unable
to complete before entering Carmel; she had brought the unfinished manuscript
with her. In addition she did some translations from Latin, and worked
on the Index for her translation of St Thomas's Quaestiones disputatae
de Veritate; she also added a page or two to a history of her family,
already begun at home. With all this she combined an intense study of
the Saints of the Order, which resulted in three short works: Teresa
of Avila (published 1934), St Teresa Margaret Redi (published
1934, on the occasion of her canonisation), and an article on The
History and Spirit of Carmel to make the Order known published in
Augsburger Postzeitung in 1935.
All this work, and other spiritual and pedagogical writings, certainly
created a peculiar situation concerning the novice, Sr Benedicta. The
question must be asked whether the Novice Mistress, Mother Teresa Renata,
who was more or less of an age with Edith (she was just six months her
senior), and who admired her intellectual gifts and the position she
enjoyed in the world of science, applied impartially to Edith the methods
and principles of formation in vogue at that time, as we read in her
first biography. On the other hand Edith, who for so long had lived
independently, managing her own affairs as she wished and indulging
her own tastes, tried hard to fit in with her milieu and to accept the
suggestions and promptings she found there. This explains her reply
to the Provincial, when he asked if she had found any disillusionment
in her new life. She replied with one word, "Carmel", meaning
that she had found the reality of the common life, with the obligation
of obedience, of dependence, of self-denial. The impact of her environment,
painful in many ways, must have been for Edith the most testing problem
of her Carmelite life, and this was to continue even after her novitiate.
Some years later she wrote in the biography of Catherine Esser, foundress
of the "second" Carmel of Cologne, "At forty-six years
of age it was no small sacrifice for her (Catherine Esser) who had long
been her own mistress, once again to become a child, to obey and submit
one's own judgement to that of the superiors. She confessed much later
that it had cost her bitterly".
Edith was conscious of this difficulty. She knew she must make great
efforts to overcome herself, to reach interior freedom, efforts noticed
also by the Sisters despite her desire to conceal them. Her companion
of the noviciate, Sister Teresa Margaret, was to say twenty years later
in regard to these hidden efforts, "Living by a strong spirit of
faith, Edith loved very much the virtue of obedience. However, it is
not easy to give an example of this, even for those who could observe
her efforts every day. She obeyed and adapted so well that it was never
obvious to anyone" [E. Stein, Eine Heilige?
8-9]. But this situation also helped the novice to mature, and stand
firm in the decision taken. It did not ruffle her serenity. Witnesses
of the time are unanimous in repeating that Edith was content and happy.
Edith herself underlined this fact in her letters and in her conversations
in the parlour.
The Professed Sister
On Easter Sunday, April 21, 1935, Sister Benedicta made her Simple
Profession for three years. She prepared with a ten-day Retreat, recalling
the successive Holy Weeks spent in the silence of the great Abbey at
Beuron. A young postulant asked her how she felt. "Like the Spouse
of the Lamb", she replied, evidently a reference to the Apocalypse,
to the Lamb who would be slain, and to her own sharing in the sufferings
of Christ. She had no illusions about her destiny. "They will even
come here to take me away", she said to a friend come to visit
her some days afer her Profession; "I cannot believe they will
leave me here in peace". She was conscious of having another mission:
"It is not human activity that can save us, only the Passion of
Christ. To this I aspire".
Meanwhile something in her rapport with her elderly mother began to
change. Rose told her that one day, without saying a word to anyone,
Mrs Stein had gone to see the new Carmel of Breslau. Was it not a sign
of that motherly love which wished to know something of her daughter's
way of life? A brief greeting from her was also enclosed in Rose's letters
from time to time. Finally one day a letter arrived, addressed to "Sister
Teresa". This consolation did not last long. In 1936 came news
of the grave illness of Mrs Stein. Edith suffered deeply in silence.
On September 14 during the Renewal of Vows, her mother passed to a better
life, strengthened by the faith of the Prophets. There was reason to
thank the Lord for having spared her the sight of blazing synagogues
and friends deported to extermination camps. Shortly after the funeral
Edith had a visit from Rose, who came to Cologne to receive Baptism
in the monastery chapel on December 24. Edith followed the ceremony
from the choir with a grateful heart.
The newly-professed nun continued the same intellectual work as before.
At the request of some priests she wrote an article The Prayer of
the Church (published 1936). Her special task now, however, was
the re-writing of her work on Potency and Act for a new book entitled
Finite and Eternal Being. There followed the biography of Catherine
Esser, and the brief meditation Sancta Discretio (1938),
which Edith presented to Mother Teresa Renata, Prioress since 1936.
The latter had just finished her book Gifts and Fruits of the Holy
Spirit. "Discretion", Edith tells her, "is an essential
part of every Gift, so much so that the seven Gifts constitute its different
expressions (Auswirkungen)". Taking this statement as a
meeting point, Edith recommends to the Prioress a "wise Prudence"
(weise Masshaltung) in the fulfilment of her office, that is,
discretion. "She who must guide souls has particular need of discretion...
and must not act arbitrarily".
This frank word perhaps needed to be said to her in such a difficult
a time for the Church and especially for the religious life in Germany.
Edith said it delicately, concerned as always to see perfection in the
thought and actions of others. When it was a question of the truth,
she never allowed herself to be pressurised in any way. With Mother
Teresa Renata her relations were good, the difference of culture and
character between the two notwithstanding. The Prioress was a tender
mother to Edith.
On April 21, 1938, Good Friday that year, Sister Benedicta made her
Final Profession. She was now truly the spouse of the Lamb, nailed to
the Cross of Christ, closely united to his sufferings. But "He,
through his Death and Cross, will lead us to the glory of the Resurrection"
[Scientia Crucis 207]. In the contemplation of
the divine Crucified she associated Mary most Holy. She saw Mary at
the foot of the Cross as the prototype of all those who unite themselves
to the Redeemer; Mary, our guide, who has gone before us along the way
of complete self-giving to the Lord.
In 1938 the anti-Semitic measures of German Nazism took
on fearful proportions. Edith did not close her eyes to the fact that,
by her presence alone, she endangered her community. She toyed with
the idea of going to Israel. But only after the night of November 9,
when all the synagogues of Germany went up in flames, was her transfer
abroad made imperative. During the night of St Sylvester a loyal friend
of the Carmel drove her by car across the Dutch frontier to the Carmel
of Echt. Some days earlier she had written in a letter, "I must
tell you that today I understand better what it means to be the Spouse
of Christ under the sign of the Cross. To understand this to its fullest
depths is not possible it is a mystery".
In the Mystery of the Cross
Her departure from her beloved religious family was agonising. "But
I was convinced that this was the Will of God, the only way to avoid
greater evils". Thus she writes from Echt. Towards the end of the
same year (1939) she records her appreciation at having found a safe
haven of peace. Nevertheless, "the thought that we have here no
lasting home is always with me. I have no other wish than that God's
Will should be accomplished in me. How long I am to be here depends
on him. As to what will happen then, it is not for me to concern myself.
But it is necessary to pray much, in order to remain faithful come what
may".
Prayer and fidelity to her own vocation were the response of Sister
Benedicta to possible deportation and death. In pondering the alarming
news coming daily from Germany, the premonition of martyrdom grew ever
stronger in her, becoming slowly a firm conviction. Already in the last
year at Cologne she had begun to feel a deep affinity with Queen Esther
of the Old Testament, that strong courageous woman ready to offer her
own life to save her people. Edith now could say, "I am certain
that the Lord has accepted my life for all... Esther has been chosen
from her people specifically to intercede for them before the King.
I am a little Esther, poor and powerless, but the King who has chosen
me is infinitely great and merciful. And this is a profound consolation".
This thought was never to leave her. In 1941 for the Feast of the
Prioress, Mother Anthony, she composed a poetic work entitled Nocturnal
Dialogue, of which the protagonist was Queen Esther. At the tragic
moment Esther approaches the King to beg a reprieve for her people.
Suddenly wrapt in a trance, she sees "a bare mountain, and on the
top a Cross; and to the Cross was nailed One who bled profusely from
a thousand wounds. And we, all of us, athirst, drank salvation from
that copious spring". But suddenly the Cross disappeared. Her face
was bathed "in a sweet and consoling light, come from the wounds
of the Man just dead, there on the Cross. He himself was the Light,
the Eternal Light, from distant ages awaited: Splendour of the Father,
Salvation of the People". Esther portrays the particular spirituality
of Edith, for whom Esther is no longer the biblical figure time-bound
to the Old Testament. As the Old continues into the New (Testament),
so Esther also, through the nocturnal vision of Christ Crucified and
Christ Light, penetrates into the New, under the sign and the experience
of the Cross. The same happened to Edith. She offered her life for the
Jewish people and her offer was accepted, not as that of a Jewish woman,
but because she was enlightened by faith in the immense redemptive value
of the sacrifice of Christ; because she was immersed in the mystery
of the Cross and sustained by the light of the Resurrection.
The Cross was at the centre of Edith's whole spiritual life. But particularly
as the persecution of the Jews grew daily in intensity, at the Carmel
of Echt she placed herself unconditionally at the foot of the Cross.
On Passion Sunday 1939 she sought permission to offer herself "to
the Sacred Heart as a victim of expiation for true peace". On June
9 she wrote her Last Testament, ending with the words: "From now
on I accept the death God has reserved for me, joyfully and with perfect
submission to his most holy Will. I pray the Lord to accept my life
and death to his honour and praise.... as expiation for the unbelief
of the Jewish people".
The theme of the Cross predominates in the writings of her last years,
revealing in her a deep longing to become one with Christ Crucified,
to be with him and in him a victim of expiation. This longing is revealed
in her meditations for the Renewal of Vows The Espousals of the
Lamb (1939), Ave Crux (1940), and her study on the central
inspirational idea in the life and work of St John of the Cross, for
which she chose the title Scientia Crucis (The Knowledge of the
Cross).
After three years' residence at Echt, Sister Benedicta was entitled
to incorporation in the new Carmel. But the superiors failed to reach
a decision, for reasons not entirely clear. Uncertainty? Unconscious
reluctance to accept a stranger? Would it be altogether appropriate
to allow the transfer? Edith surrendered herself to the will of the
superiors in a spirit of faith. "I am happy either way", she
said. But she could not let the occasion pass without saying to the
Prioress, "We can only acquire a 'scientia crucis' if we
have the grace to taste and relish the Cross through and through. I
was convinced of this from the first moment, and I said with my whole
heart Ave Crux, spes unica!"
As Edith wrote these words she had particularly in mind the difficult
situation of her sister Rose, who had recently reached Echt after much
hardship. The superiors had turned down her request to remain on at
the Carmel as an Extern Sister. The same hesitation and uncertainty
also shown in regard to Rose, and most deeply felt by Sister Benedicta,
confirmed her in her silent but decisive orientation towards the Cross,
and that alone. "As Jesus, in his abandonment before death, delivered
himself into the hands of the invisible and incomprehensible God, the
soul must do likewise casting herself headlong into the pitch-darkness
of faith, the only way to the incomprehensible God".
Edith wrote these words in her most original essay entitled Scientia
Crucis. She undertook the work at the request of the superiors on
the occasion of the fourth centenary of the birth of St John of the
Cross. The essay, though unfinished, is considered a model as a phenomenological-theological
study of mysticism. Born of her own intense suffering, it expresses
"the highest spiritual commitment (Hingabe) to the ideal of the
Order", and conveys also "total detachment from life and transcendence
over the finite world, in the sublimation of all human suffering"
[Postscript of L. Gelber, German edition: 295].
According to Edith there is in St Paul "a theology of the Cross
drawn from profound experience", [Cf. Scientia
crucis 37.] which treats of "a living truth, real and active"
in which she sees "the way of life of the Discalced Carmelites".
She discovers in John of the Cross an authentic message centred on "the
word of the Cross... which fills all those who open themselves to its
action". Nevertheless "the Cross is not an end in itself.
It stands out on high, summoning us to the heights... the triumphant
symbol with which Christ strikes the gates of Heaven and throws them
wide open. Then there flow from the Cross rays of divine light, which
bathe all those who walk in the wake of the Crucified". [ibid
38-39] To arrive there however, "it is necessary to pass with
him through death on the Cross, like him crucifying ourselves by a life
of mortification and self-denial, abandoning ourselves to a crucifixion
full of grief and heralding death, as God may arrange or permit. The
more perfect that active and passive crucifixion, the more intense will
be our union with the Crucified, and the richer our share in his divine
life" [ibid 53].
On this foundation she lays down a way to mystical experience using
modern concepts of the philosophy of the person, but developed in the
light of Christian metaphysics. The transcendent God can reveal himself
as Person to the soul, giving himself to her with infinite love, caressing
her in the deepest recesses of her being. But God also reveals himself
through his powerful action in the destinies of souls, bringing about
"the rebirth of man through the action of sanctifying grace".
How? Through the night of faith, as Divine Darkness. The ways of the
knowledge of God, to which she dedicates a brief study of the symbolical
theology of Pseudo-Dionysius, follow the road of negation theology and
the mystical experience of darkness. To Edith also God revealed himself
only "in the impenetrability of his mysteries", welcomed in
faith, hope and love. "That which we catch a glimpse of is but
a fleeting reflection of that which the divine mystery hides, until
the day of future brightness. That faith in a secret history should
strengthen us, and give us peace", she wrote in a letter of 1941.
There is no doubt that Edith lived her last months in the Night of
Faith, under the guidance of St John of the Cross. In contemplating
the life of the Mystical Doctor of Carmel and immersing herself in his
final sufferings, she discovered in his death that sublime conformity
to Christ "reached on the heights of Golgotha". [Scientia
Crucis 45.] A few months after penning these lines, she too reached
the final station of her Way of the Cross. Snatched from her
monastery, she went to meet the Cross on the Golgotha of Auschwitch.
From January 1942 Edith knew that her very presence in the Carmel
of Echt could have serious consequences for the community. Holland was
now occupied by the Nazi forces, with a highly efficient web of SS.
Centres. Both Edith and Rose were summoned to Maastricht for questioning.
They were also obliged to wear the Yellow Star, the Jewish identification
tag. Edith tried all means to obtain a visa for Switzerland, in order
to join the Carmel of Le Pâquier. The desired reply did not come. What
to do next? Wait at least to have the necessary documents? Set out then?
We must realise that Echt Carmel, situated in a small Dutch town,
knew little or nothing of the political situation and the anti-Semitism
of the time. Furthermore, to reach Switzerland, Edith would have had
to leave the town dressed in a religious habit, without money in her
pocket, wearing on her breast the Yellow Star, and pass through Germany
with considerable danger. She would have had no one to assist or defend
her. Perhaps it could have been arranged for her to leave Holland secretly,
in secular dress. However, in her sense of rectitude, her sincerity
and absolute truthfulness, she felt disinclined to flee in this manner.
Moreover she had already a mysterious intuition that God's plan for
her was about to be fulfilled. The hour of sacrifice had in fact come.
What caused the sudden explosion of hate, and the plan to exterminate
the Dutch Jews, was the Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Jong of Utrecht,
read in all the churches of Holland on July 26, 1942. It voiced the
Church's protest against the deportation of Jews. The reaction of the
SS. was immediate. All baptised Jews, priests and religious sisters
of Jewish origin, were arrested and sent to the concentration camp.
Among them were Edith and Rose. Two SS. officials arrived at the monastery
of Echt, giving Sister Benedicta only five minutes to get ready. Taking
the hand of Rose, who was waiting for her at the door, she said, "Come,
let us go for the sake of our people". She meant the Jewish people.
In the night of August 2-3, the sisters arrived at Amersfort dispersal
camp. Then during the night of August 3-4 the Jewish prisoners with
many others were moved to Westerbork camp, set in a district completely
uninhabited in the north of Holland. From here Edith was able to send
a note to the Prioress of Echt Carmel, through the mother of a religious
sister who had arrived at the camp with luggage for her daughter. Dated
August 6, the note was a brief request for woollen stocking and two
blankets, and some woollen clothes for Rose. Particularly relevant was
the final sentence, "Tomorrow a convoy is to leave for Silesia
or Czechoslovakia??" A graphological study of this final letter
reveals two things: "on the one hand a continual slant or fall,
ever more accentuated; on the other a continual recovery, to the point
that the diagrams remain intact, manifesting an indestructible physiognomy.
The graphologist, accustomed to studying the graphic wave, saw there
an unspeakable suffering and at the same time a substratum of power
and dynamism, clearly discernible in spite of everything" [N.
Palaferri, Analisi su grafie della beata Edith Stein, dattoloscritto,
Urbino 1988:4.]
This analysis bears out the eye-witness accounts of Edith during her
last five days at the camp. She freely accepted her destiny and lived
it to the full, offering herself as victim for her people. In a short
essay Das mystische Sühneleiden (Mystical Expiation) she had
stressed: "The Saviour is not alone on the Cross... Every man,
down through the ages, who has patiently borne a hard lot by remembering
the sufferings of the Saviour, or who freely took upon himself a role
of expiation; that man has thereby lightened the enormous load of the
sins of humanity, and has helped the Saviour to bear its weight. And
what is more, Christ the Head accomplishes his redemptive work through
those members of his Mystical Body who join hands with him, body and
soul, in his saving work. The suffering of reparation, accepted freely,
is what joins us most of all to the Lord".
In this frame of mind, Edith carried out to the bitter end her mission in the
Church, courageously and with an extraordinary strength. Today there is no longer
any doubt that the Stein sisters, shortly after their arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau,
were killed in the gas chamber. Edith was fifty- one years old, Rose fifty-nine.
An eye-witness, Ludwig Schlutter, who spoke briefly with Edith shortly before
their departure from Westerbork, remembered her firm words: "Whatever happens,
I am prepared for everything. Jesus is also here with us". Jesus was indeed
with those anguished Jews as they choked to death from the poisonous fumes, in
the underground bunker of Auschwitz. "A death nobly faced with greatness
of soul, in circumstances savage beyond compare" [Hedwig
Konrad Martius, in Relatio et Vita 141]
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