Blessed Edith Stein

Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Poland, into a devout Jewish family. She lost her faith in the Jewish religion but at Gottingen University she came into contact with Catholicism, read the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila, one of the greatest personalities of the history of the Catholic Church, and became a Catholic in 1922. She read deeply in Catholic philosophy and translated the treatise On Truth by St Thomas Aquinas.

Edith was a brilliant lecturer, her lectures being described as 'electrifying' at senior girls' schools and various universities and at the age of twenty-five she became first assistant to the founder of Phenomenology, Edmund Husserl. In 1932 she was appointed lecturer at the Education Institute at Munster, but the following year she had to leave this post because of the Nazi anti-Jewish legislation.

Edith ultimately became a Carmelite nun, taking the name Teresa Benedieta of the Cross. Indeed, she carried big crosses - deep trials because of her conversion, sufferings in concentration camps, and eventually her tragic death in Auschwitz. Such was her heroic destiny - all for the love of Christ.

After she entered the Carmelite convent at Cologne she completed a philosophical work she had begun several years before, entitled, Finite and Eternal Being, in which she sought to synthesise the philosophy of St Thomas with modern thought.

When in 1938 the Nazi persecution of the Jews became even more intense, she wisely shifted to the Carmelite convent in Holland where she wrote another important book, The Science of the Cross, a presentation of the life and teaching of St John of the Cross.

By then, the Germans had invaded Holland, arrested her in the convent and sent her to Auschwitz. On the way her train passed through Breslau where she had been born and she commented: 'This is my beloved hometown. I will never see it again... We are riding to our death'.

In one of her unpublished meditations, she sums up much of her courage and spirituality: 'Do you want to be totally united to the Crucified? If you are serious about this, you will be present, by the power of his cross, at every front, at every place of sorrow, bringing to those who suffer, comfort, healing and salvation'.

Essays on Woman

Edith Stein was a most brilliant and versatile intellectual and it would seem that her most original and seminal contributions to modern thought are her Essays on Woman, (l) far more interesting than her autobiography, Life in a Jewish Family. She treats of many facets of woman's vocation - the ethos of women's professions, the separate vocations of man and woman, the spirituality of the Christian woman, principles of women's education, problems of women's education, the Church and woman, etc... These are profoundly intellectual essays and 1 would like to see them simplified for wider circulation as she would seem to be the much needed catalyst in our modern society's confusion concerning the special role of woman.

Many women feel the pain of the human condition but in Edith Stein's life and lectures, one can sense the special redemptive role of woman in that God combats evil through the power of woman's maternal love, extending to all persons. The whole world craves for such love and it is essential that women should give it. Her beatification by the Catholic Church is certainly justified.

In exercising her feminine nature so warmly and profoundly, Edith reveals to us what it is to be fully human - an essential attribute of a saint. She is that rare phenomenon - the deep, original woman philosopher - who inspires women to the highest professional achievement but this is where she is different. She points to the interior life, the life of constant prayer as the source of her strength and shows us that the truths of the Christian faith are not just abstractions because she experienced them and lived them most profoundly. She is a true witness to authentic feminism.

Much of her personal success as a teacher and lecturer was her emphasis on example and love. She wrote: 'The children in school ... do not need merely what we have but what we are'.

And again: 'The, entire educational process must be carried out with love which is perceptible in every disciplinary measure and which does not instil any fear. And the most effective educational method is not the word of instruction but the living example without which all words remain useless...'

Womanhood

Because the human being possessed a perfect nature before the fall, Edith Stein concluded that the archetype of perfect humanity materialised in the human person of Christ, and the paragon of perfect womanhood materialised in Christ's mother, Mary.
Woman's vocation is of a twofold nature. Woman's natural calling is that of wife and mother and to be a mother means to develop true humanity. 'Both spiritual companionship and spiritual motherliness are not limited to the physical wife and mother relationship but they extend to all people with whom woman comes into contact'.

In her day Edith Stein addressed herself to the study of the feminine psyche but few psychological researches were available and virtually no data from a religious point of view and so she alluded to her probing on unknown territory. She ranks, therefore, among those humanistic pioneers who were dedicated to the unique nature of woman's psyche. 1-ler studies were focused on her perception of the unique characteristics and intrinsic potential of woman and she stresses that it is most vital to give a girl an all-round education suitable to her uniqueness as a woman.

Vocation of man and woman

Before assessing men and women's common vocation in the service of God, Edith Stein considers the problem of the distribution of vocations according to the natural order. Should certain positions be limited to men only, others for women only, and possibly some open for both? Possibly, no - because the strong individual differences existing within both sexes must be considered. Women have masculine characteristics and men share feminine ones. True feminine qualities are required wherever deep feeling, sharp intuition, understanding and adaptability are needed ... activities involving the total person. A woman functions well in all educational and medical professions, in all social work, in the arts which depict humanity, in the business world, in public and parochial duties.

The perfect man and woman Christ and Mary
Christ came to earth as the son of man. The first creature, the unique phenomenon, 'the image of the invisible God' as St Paul assures us - would that seem to indicate that he wishes to institute only men as his official representatives on earth? On the other hand, he bound himself so intimately to one woman more than anyone else. He formed her so closely to his own perfection and he has called women in every age to the most intimate union with himself, to proclaim his will to kings and popes and to bring his message to all humanity.

The spirituality of motherhood

In Freda Oben's fine, short book, Edith Stein, Scholar, Feminist, Saint (2), she highlights Edith Stein's emphasis on the deeply spiritual role of the true mother. 'Just as Mary (Christ's mother) generates spiritual life, woman's primary mission is the formation of youth as cells of the mystical body of Christ. . ' [In the face of the suffering of our own youth, this is a very important message today: the despair among adolescents, so great that they actually turn to suicide; child abuse and child neglect ... the use of drugs and alcohol ...] 'to win children for heaven is genuine maternity: it is the most exalted vocation for all women. To awaken divine sparks in a child's heart is a joy, not of this world. . ' And Edith Stein writes that the primary responsibility for children and youth belongs to the woman. The small person becomes a child of God in baptism but she says: 'grace in the child is like a hidden flame which must be painstakingly tended and nursed'.

If a child is separated from its mother in its early years, it can hardly learn any trust in God and develop an harmonious adjustment to the world. Only the fortunate child who feels itself safe in the love of its mother instinctively develops this essential trust. 'Our Blessed Mother is the prototype, the ideal of all authentic womanhood by virtue of the fact that the essence of spiritual maternity belongs inherently to the very nature of woman'. (3)

The primacy of love

Even after her conversion Edith would sit with her mother in the synagogue - to keep the peace - and often heard the verse of Leviticus 19: 'Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself'. But what was Edith's idea of 'neighbour'? She wrote: 'For the Christian there is no stranger. Whoever is near us and needing us must be "our neighbour"; it does not matter whether he is related to us or not, whether we like him or not, whether he is morally worthy of our help or not. The love of Christ knows no limits. It never ends; it does not shrink from ugliness and filth. He came for sinners, not for the just. And if the love of Christ is in us we shall do as he did and seek the lost sheep'.

And in another context she wrote: 'Millions of children today are homeless and orphaned, even though they do have a home and a mother. They hunger for love and eagerly await a guiding hand to draw them out of dirt and misery into purity and light. How could it be otherwise than that the Church should open its arms wide to take these beloved of the Lord to its heart? But for this it needs human arms and human hearts, material arms and material hearts'.

God's universal providence

Edith Stein once wrote: 'I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to its smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of divine providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God's all-seeing eye'.

And this theme is so reminiscent of Cardinal Newman's reflection that God had a special plan for him - unique to him - that he does not know it in this life but will be revealed to him in the next.

Edith Stein is emphatic that Christ's redemptive action is not just for a few but for all people, that everyone is in some way included in Christ's mystical body. Each person is special - a unique revelation of God and to be understood and esteemed, and that salvation does not depend on the exterior limits of any church.

As Oben observes: 'She becomes a symbol of universal dimensions because she points to that universal realm of brotherhood above all barriers of nation, race and religion...

'Edith is one with Christ because she went his way of the Cross. She gave herself totally to his ministry of love and reparation … She believed that love conquers hate and evil ... The Cross is triumphant because it wins the redemption of the world...

'Edith Stein shows us the way out of our contemporary materialism, secularism and paganism through the power of love and prayer. (4)

In God's providence, Edith Stein had a special vocation: to strengthen women, to help them realise their immense potential, to find their full humanity as persons and as women.

It is the vocation of every Christian - man and woman - to belong to Christ in loving surrender and serve him in charity to others. Whether man or woman, consecrated or not, each of us is called to the imitation of Christ. Christ is the embodiment of human perfection for in him there is no sin, and the masculine and feminine virtues are united and their weaknesses redeemed and sublimated. That is why we see in men and women of true holiness a womanly tenderness and a truly maternal empathy for people entrusted to them and in holy and charismatic women there is, as it were, a manly courage, efficiency and perseverance.

Standing with Mary

The example of Christ's Mother is most relevant here. She is the ideal type of woman who knew how to unite tenderness with power. Did she not stand by the cross of Christ? Until then she had concerned herself about the human condition and understood it as a woman and mother. In her son's tragic and climactic hour she appeared publicly. And Edith Stein observes: 'Perhaps the moment has almost come for the Catholic woman to stand with Mary and with the Church under the cross!' St Catherine of Siena wrote to the King of Naples: 'Out of love for the crucified Jesus, we (women) must be zealous, indeed overzealous for the holy Church'.

Edith Stein concludes: 'Perhaps through the centuries our attitude in the Church has been too passive... The 20th century demands more! ... Should Catholic Action stay a cliche which resounds through the assemblies but hot ignite? ... We will not overcome this mountain of difficulties by our own power ... we will be victorious in the sign of the cross ... we will live our lives fully as Catholic academics - successfully or unsuccessfully - as a blessing of our society, our nation and our Church'.

A model for all

Blessed Edith Stein is eminently a model woman and saint for our troubled and complex times. She is the exemplar of those converts from Judaism who heroically accepted martyrdom and thus became a bridge between Christians and Jews. She is the embodiment of the Christian intellectual who sacrificed her life of learning - and everything else - for the love of Christ. As a Carmelite and contemplative, she reached new heights of wisdom which, later on when she was ordered to resume her philosophical work, were reflected in her writings. As a woman, she shows us the many and new paths which the Christian woman, while remaining both profoundly feminine and truly Christian, may tread.

She taught us how to live - 'to have life and have it more abundantly' - and she taught us how to die, with boundless courage and faith in the horrors of the gas chambers at Auschwitz!

Edith Stein, a most brilliant and original intellectual, a Jewish convert and Carmelite nun, martyred in the gas chambers at Auschwitz in the monstrous Nazi holocaust, a woman of extraordinary love and understanding, must surely be a most outstanding model in the cult of authentic feminism, highlighted in our days perhaps more than ever before in the Church and the world at large. She has been acclaimed as 'the most significant German woman of this century'.

(1) ICS Publications, Washington, DC. USA, 1987
(2) Alba House, New York, USA, 1987.
(3) op. cit., p53
(4) op. cit., pp78-79