Collection: 📚 St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein, was a 20th-century German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun. Born in 1891 in Breslau (modern-day Wrocław, Poland), she pursued a brilliant academic career before embracing the Catholic faith in 1922. Entering the Carmelite convent in Cologne, she took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, dedicating her life to prayer, study, and contemplation. During World War II, she was arrested by the Nazis because of her Jewish heritage and sent to Auschwitz, where she was martyred in 1942. St. Teresa Benedicta is remembered for her intellectual brilliance, deep faith, and heroic witness to Christ even unto death.

Lived: 1891 – 1942 | Feast Day: August 9 | Canonized: October 11, 1998
Patronage: Europe, philosophers, converts, and those facing persecution.