Aug. 9, 2012 Thursday: St. Benedicta of the Cross
St. Benedicta of the Cross, OCD
Virgin and Martyr, Co-Patroness of Europe
From: http://www.kilmacudcarmel.ie/edith.html
Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on October 12, 1891. She was the youngest of 11 children. Her father died when she was two years old, and her hard-working and devout mother took over the care of her large family and timber business. However, Edith did not keep the strong faith of her mother, and eventually declared herself an athiest, saying: "deliberately and of my own free-will, I turned away from prayer". She was a talented student, and after finishing school with top results, she chose to study philosoply in Gottingen where she encountered many new ways of thinking which challenged her religious experiences and decisions.
Edith graduated and continued her philosophical study, achieving a doctorate degree. During this time, she went into Frankfurt Cathedral one day and saw a woman with a shopping basket going in to kneel for a brief prayer. She said later: "This was something totally new to me. In the synagogues and Protestant churches people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation. It was something I never forgot". She found herself searching after the truth. One day she went to visit a young Protestant widow, uneasy about what to say to comfort her. However, she was surprised at the faith of the young woman and said: "this was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me". One night during the summer of 1921 she found herself spending several weeks at the home of a fellow philosopher and his wife. She happened to pick up the autobiography of St Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) and read it all through the night, saying to herself as she finished reading at dawn: "This is the truth".
On 1st January 1922 Edith was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. It was a decision that her mother never accepted as long as she lived. Edith continued teaching philosophy and writing, and held dreams of finding a husband and a happy marriage. However, as darkness began to break over Germany in the 1930's, she sensed another call; to unite her life with the fate of her own Jewish people. Nazi law made it impossible for her to continue teaching, so she entered the Carmelite monastery of Cologne on 14 October 1933, saying: "Human activities cannot help us, but only the suffering of Christ. It is my desire to share it". Edith took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
As the the anti-Semitism of the Nazis grew, in 1938 Edith was smuggled across the border into the Carmelite Convent of Echt in Holland. However, as the war escalated and Holland was occupied, the danger for Jews spread to that country. In August 1942, as retaliation against the protests of Dutch bishops to the treatment of Jews, many Jewish Christians were arrested, including Edith and her sister Rosa (who had also converted and was living at the Carmel in Echt). They were transported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where Edith was gassed and cremated on 9th August 1942.
I saw a Saint
Eye-witness account of Edith's Arrest by the Nazis in 1942
My name is Frits van der Asdonk (63), Montfort Father. I was born at Meyel, a little village in the south of the Netherlands. My father originated from Echt where his unmarried sisters and brother were still living at the time of this story. They had kind of adopted me and so I spent most of my holidays with them in Echt. They owned a store in the Grote Straat right opposite the Carmel of Echt which played a great part in the lives of my aunties and uncle. As a little boy I knew much of the sisters and their conditions of life. Just before the great war a German Jewess had come to live at the Carmel of Echt; she came from Cologne and tried, together with her sister, to escape from Nazi Germany. You guess as much - her name was Sister Benedicta and her sister's name was Rosa. As my uncle had one of the few automobiles in the village, he was often asked to take a sister to the regional hospital in Roermond to consult a specialist. On one such occasion he took Sister Benedicta with Rosa to the hospital and it was my privilege to sit in the front seat. No word was spoken and the sisters prayed in German, a language of which we both were pretty ignorant. It confirmed the rumour that the Sister was awfully holy and learned.
In 1940 war also invaded the Netherlands and the persecution of the Jews, hitherto in Nazi Germany, spread to my country. Nobody feared for the Carmelite nun because, as everyone said, the Germans would respect an innocent nun. If dates serve my memory well, at the end of July 1942 the Dutch Bishops took a stand, and from the chancel in every parish church of the country sounded a loud protest and condemnation of the injustice to the Jews of the country and elsewhere in occupied countries.
Revenge could be expected, but nobody thought of Sister Benedicta... in an enclosed convent... a nun... a Carmelite. Yet this was exactly what happened, the Sunday after, in the early afternoon. All of a sudden sounded the war songs of the SS while a group of some forty soldiers marched through the Grote Straat and halted at the Carmel. The villagers were forced to clear the streets and withdrew behind the windows of their houses from which they watched the scene, praying and weeping. Sister Benedicta appeared after some 15 minutes in choirdress with the David Star; proudly walking right in the middle of the road with her sister a little behind her and the German SS forming a "guard of honour" on the sidewalks of the street. From the windows came the farewell shouts of the people ("Sister Benedicta", "Sister Benedicta") which Sister acknowledged as far as the end of the road where a Panzer lorry was waiting. What a lonely scene! What a lonely scene! I witnessed the scene from the windows of the first storey of my aunts' house in the Grote Straat of Echt. I knew I had seen something historic, and whenever I revisit the Grote Straat at Echt I see in my memory's mind a martyr who still lives on not only with God but also in the hearts of people.
G.v.d. ASDONK smm Heiloo, 10-8-1987.
The Sacrifice of the Cross
Edith Stein was born as her family were celebrating the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur. This is historically the Feast of Atonement, the only day of the year when the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, to offer sacrifice for the sins of the whole people. Being born on this day made Edith very special to her mother, but it also foreshadowed the life and death that lay ahead of her.
The Letter to the Hebrews explains how the death of Jesus on Calvary brought this feast of Atonement to its fulfilment. Jesus is the High Priest who has made offering of His own life, once and for all, for the salvation of all humanity. Edith gradually came to identify her life with that of Jesus on the Cross. She said: "I understood the cross as the destiny of God's people. I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take it upon themselves on everybody's behalf." And this is what she did in her own life.
After her entry to Carmel, Edith said: "I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful."
Edith escaped to Holland in an attempt to escape the Nazis, but she must have sensed that eventually she would be called to offer her life in imitation of Jesus. As the war escalated she wrote: "I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death... so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world".
Edith's last known words, heard in Echt, were addressed to her sister Rosa as they were arrested:
"Come, we are going for our people".
Virgin and Martyr, Co-Patroness of Europe
From: http://www.kilmacudcarmel.ie/edith.html
Edith Stein was born to a Jewish family at Breslau on October 12, 1891. She was the youngest of 11 children. Her father died when she was two years old, and her hard-working and devout mother took over the care of her large family and timber business. However, Edith did not keep the strong faith of her mother, and eventually declared herself an athiest, saying: "deliberately and of my own free-will, I turned away from prayer". She was a talented student, and after finishing school with top results, she chose to study philosoply in Gottingen where she encountered many new ways of thinking which challenged her religious experiences and decisions.
Edith graduated and continued her philosophical study, achieving a doctorate degree. During this time, she went into Frankfurt Cathedral one day and saw a woman with a shopping basket going in to kneel for a brief prayer. She said later: "This was something totally new to me. In the synagogues and Protestant churches people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation. It was something I never forgot". She found herself searching after the truth. One day she went to visit a young Protestant widow, uneasy about what to say to comfort her. However, she was surprised at the faith of the young woman and said: "this was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me". One night during the summer of 1921 she found herself spending several weeks at the home of a fellow philosopher and his wife. She happened to pick up the autobiography of St Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) and read it all through the night, saying to herself as she finished reading at dawn: "This is the truth".
On 1st January 1922 Edith was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. It was a decision that her mother never accepted as long as she lived. Edith continued teaching philosophy and writing, and held dreams of finding a husband and a happy marriage. However, as darkness began to break over Germany in the 1930's, she sensed another call; to unite her life with the fate of her own Jewish people. Nazi law made it impossible for her to continue teaching, so she entered the Carmelite monastery of Cologne on 14 October 1933, saying: "Human activities cannot help us, but only the suffering of Christ. It is my desire to share it". Edith took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
As the the anti-Semitism of the Nazis grew, in 1938 Edith was smuggled across the border into the Carmelite Convent of Echt in Holland. However, as the war escalated and Holland was occupied, the danger for Jews spread to that country. In August 1942, as retaliation against the protests of Dutch bishops to the treatment of Jews, many Jewish Christians were arrested, including Edith and her sister Rosa (who had also converted and was living at the Carmel in Echt). They were transported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where Edith was gassed and cremated on 9th August 1942.
I saw a Saint
Eye-witness account of Edith's Arrest by the Nazis in 1942
My name is Frits van der Asdonk (63), Montfort Father. I was born at Meyel, a little village in the south of the Netherlands. My father originated from Echt where his unmarried sisters and brother were still living at the time of this story. They had kind of adopted me and so I spent most of my holidays with them in Echt. They owned a store in the Grote Straat right opposite the Carmel of Echt which played a great part in the lives of my aunties and uncle. As a little boy I knew much of the sisters and their conditions of life. Just before the great war a German Jewess had come to live at the Carmel of Echt; she came from Cologne and tried, together with her sister, to escape from Nazi Germany. You guess as much - her name was Sister Benedicta and her sister's name was Rosa. As my uncle had one of the few automobiles in the village, he was often asked to take a sister to the regional hospital in Roermond to consult a specialist. On one such occasion he took Sister Benedicta with Rosa to the hospital and it was my privilege to sit in the front seat. No word was spoken and the sisters prayed in German, a language of which we both were pretty ignorant. It confirmed the rumour that the Sister was awfully holy and learned.
In 1940 war also invaded the Netherlands and the persecution of the Jews, hitherto in Nazi Germany, spread to my country. Nobody feared for the Carmelite nun because, as everyone said, the Germans would respect an innocent nun. If dates serve my memory well, at the end of July 1942 the Dutch Bishops took a stand, and from the chancel in every parish church of the country sounded a loud protest and condemnation of the injustice to the Jews of the country and elsewhere in occupied countries.
Revenge could be expected, but nobody thought of Sister Benedicta... in an enclosed convent... a nun... a Carmelite. Yet this was exactly what happened, the Sunday after, in the early afternoon. All of a sudden sounded the war songs of the SS while a group of some forty soldiers marched through the Grote Straat and halted at the Carmel. The villagers were forced to clear the streets and withdrew behind the windows of their houses from which they watched the scene, praying and weeping. Sister Benedicta appeared after some 15 minutes in choirdress with the David Star; proudly walking right in the middle of the road with her sister a little behind her and the German SS forming a "guard of honour" on the sidewalks of the street. From the windows came the farewell shouts of the people ("Sister Benedicta", "Sister Benedicta") which Sister acknowledged as far as the end of the road where a Panzer lorry was waiting. What a lonely scene! What a lonely scene! I witnessed the scene from the windows of the first storey of my aunts' house in the Grote Straat of Echt. I knew I had seen something historic, and whenever I revisit the Grote Straat at Echt I see in my memory's mind a martyr who still lives on not only with God but also in the hearts of people.
G.v.d. ASDONK smm Heiloo, 10-8-1987.
The Sacrifice of the Cross
Edith Stein was born as her family were celebrating the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur. This is historically the Feast of Atonement, the only day of the year when the High Priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, to offer sacrifice for the sins of the whole people. Being born on this day made Edith very special to her mother, but it also foreshadowed the life and death that lay ahead of her.
The Letter to the Hebrews explains how the death of Jesus on Calvary brought this feast of Atonement to its fulfilment. Jesus is the High Priest who has made offering of His own life, once and for all, for the salvation of all humanity. Edith gradually came to identify her life with that of Jesus on the Cross. She said: "I understood the cross as the destiny of God's people. I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take it upon themselves on everybody's behalf." And this is what she did in her own life.
After her entry to Carmel, Edith said: "I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful."
Edith escaped to Holland in an attempt to escape the Nazis, but she must have sensed that eventually she would be called to offer her life in imitation of Jesus. As the war escalated she wrote: "I accept the death that God has prepared for me in complete submission and with joy as being his most holy will for me. I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death... so that the Lord will be accepted by His people and that His Kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world".
Edith's last known words, heard in Echt, were addressed to her sister Rosa as they were arrested:
"Come, we are going for our people".
