Born Jewish, Edith Stein became an atheist while studying to be a teacher, but she felt an emptiness that science and psychology could not satisfy. Her study of philosopher Edmund Husserl introduced her to the idea that spiritual realities could be known beyond scientific measurement.

While at the University of Göttingen, Stein encountered Christians and began reading the New Testament. Convinced that Jesus was divine, she later read Teresa of Avila’s autobiography, which led her to convert to Catholicism and become a Carmelite nun. Her family rejected her decision.

Because she was ethnically Jewish, Stein moved from Germany to the Netherlands during World War II. In 1942, the Nazis arrested Catholic Jews in retaliation for a public protest by Dutch Catholic bishops against the persecution of Jews. Stein and her sister Rosa were taken to Westerbork and then deported to Auschwitz.

Although Stein could have escaped, she refused to leave her sister behind. Upon arriving at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, Edith, Rosa, and 262 others were sent to a gas chamber where Zyklon B came through a vent in the ceiling and killed them all.

Stein’s life and writings, especially her reflections on the cross, have inspired generations of Christians. Pope John Paul II canonized her as a saint in October 1998.

Also On This Day

1644 – English Parliament orders Roger Williams’ book The Bloody Tenent to be burned by the public hangman. Bloody Tenent is an appeal for liberty of conscience against the “bloody” practice of persecution.

1801 – Known as the Cane Ridge Revival. Started by Barton Stone. Between 1,000 and 3,000 men and women had been converted, and the news was the buzz of the region. Before it was all over, 20,000 souls had come seeking the Lord.

1933 – Death of hymn-writer William H. Draper at Clifton, Bristol. He had translated into English the hymn “All Creatures of Our God and King” by Francis of Assisi