Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Biography

Edith Stein was born in Breslau, the capital of Prussian Silesia, on October 12, 1891, to a Jewish family of German stock. Brought up in the values of the Hebrew religion, at the age of 14 she abandoned the faith of her fathers and became agnostic. She studied philosophy in Göttingen, becoming a disciple of Edmund Husserl, the founder of the phenomenological school.

She has a reputation as a brilliant philosopher. In 1921 she converted to Catholicism, receiving baptism in 1922. She taught for eight years in Speyer (from 1923 to 1931). In 1932 she was called to teach at the Pedagogical Institute of Münster, Westphalia, but her activity was suspended after about a year because of the racial laws.

In 1933, following a long-cherished desire, she entered the Cologne Carmel as a postulant. She took the name of Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. On 2^nd of August 1942, she was taken by the Gestapo and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, where she died in the gas chamber on 9^th of August.

The beatification ceremony was held on May 1^st, 1987. The solemn ceremony of canonization on October 11, 1998. In 1999 she was declared, with St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena, a Co-patroness of Europe.

Procedure

1. The canonical norms concerning the procedure to be followed in the Causes of Saints are stated in the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister promulgated by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 (AAS LXXV, 1983, 349-355).

2. To initiate a Cause it is necessary that at least five years pass after the death of the candidate. This is to allow for greater balance and objectivity in the evaluation of the case and to allow the emotions of the moment to decant. There must be a clear conviction among people about his/her sanctity (fama sanctitas) and about the efficacy of his/her intercession with the Lord (fama signorum).