St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).
1891-1942 ~ Edith was brought up in the Jewish faith in Breslan which is now Wroclaw in Poland. When she was fourteen, she gave up her religion saying she no longer believed in God and attended Gottingen University to study Philosophy. Whilst there she became especially interested in phenomenology (study of phenomenon) and was a star pupil in her subject. Graduating with a doctorate in philosophy, she stayed on at the university as a teacher.
At this time she happened to read the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila and was very impressed with the saint’s life. As a result, she became a Catholic and was duly baptised. After leaving the university, Edith got a teaching post for a short time in a Dominican school. She left there to take a position of lecturer at the Educational Institute in Munich, but found it difficult with the Nazis putting pressure on Jews. From there, she moved to Cologne for a short time and then entered a Carmelite monastery (emulating St Teresa of Avila) in the Netherlands and took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Edith knew she was in danger as the Nazis were capturing and murdering all Jews. With her sister Rosa, who was also a Catholic, she was imprisoned in Auschwitz and both were victims of the gas chamber in 1942.