I found Edith Stein and Companions on the way to Auschwitz a really good but sad book, and a good introduction to her and those who went with her to their deaths.
In the period between her conversion and entering Cologne Carmel, Edith Stein was a sought-after speaker at women's conferences. To call her a feminist would be a misuse of the term, but her addresses to women sound remarkably fresh today, as she encourages them to realise the power that they already have and to use it. /// From Cologne she was sent to a Carmel in the Netherlands the sisters thinking it would be a safe haven. As she was taken from there to Westerbork, the pre-Auschwitz Dutch assembly point, she said to her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic), 'Come, let us go for our people.' Mysterious and challenging words, placing themselves in solidarity with their fellow Jews in their suffering, but still the full meaning of those words eludes us.
There is something that immediately draws me to Edith Stein. I’ve read her biography and other writings. She was incredibly bright but also suffused with a depth of eternal wisdom. A Saint she truly is.
I love Edith Stein, but as a parent of a child with autism, I am naturally skeptical of any conclusions that might be drawn from studying historical texts in connection with autism as it is classified today. Even now, there is often inadequate language to accurately describe the social and developmental challenges of autism to those who don’t encounter it every day-e.g., it is very easy to conflate the diagnostic language with just being shy or quiet or sensitive. The poverty of such language was even greater back in Stein’s time, so very susceptible to modern projections. Descriptions of St. Therese of Lisieux as a child are even more colorful, but thankfully I haven’t seen anyone pathologize her beyond attributing her with a spirited personality. If only we could meet the saints in person in this world!
I am a parent of a child with autism (actually two children with autism but one of them can "pass") and I work in a field that is a haven for very high-functioning slightly odd people who in the past would have gone into math (or I suppose music) or, before that, possibly philosophy. I would categorize myself as a very high functioning slightly odd person (I have deficits but they are not insuperable). In the case of most saints, I read their works and see "they are definitely holier than me" but in the case of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross I read (anything that she was not writing for a general audience / nuns) and see "she is definitely holier than me *and smarter than me"". There are people who are smarter than me who are not also slightly odd (like, I have also read St JP2's thesis on St John of the Cross, or rather the book that was published from it, and he is smarter than me also and I doubt anyone has ever proposed that he was not neurotypical, whatever that word means to anyone today), so that by itself doesn't really indicate anything. What I more commonly try to assess from writings is "was this person a mystic (in the sense that I mean the word)" because sometimes you can smell it on someone's breath like salami (e.g. St Thomas Aquinas writing about love somewhere in the Summa) and because this is just a more interesting (though equally unimportant because not necessary for salvation) question.
Am I the only one who’s bothered by the widespread use of “St. Edith Stein” over “St. Teresa Benedicta”?
We don’t speak of St. Agnes Bojaxhiu, or St. Raymund Kolbe, or St. Francesco Forgione, or St. Karol Wojtyla. So why “Edith Stein”? She’s almost the only saint with a religious name I can think of whose birth name is even particularly widely known, much less the one most commonly in use. (I mean, I had to look up “Francesco Forgione” which is a name I don’t think I’ve ever even encountered for a very popular 20th century saint.)
I’m just always trouble by a lot of the narratives around St. Teresa Benedicta, which often have an air of, “Hey fellow Catholics, did you know? We also have our own Jewish Holocaust victim!”
Which seems such a gross oversimplification of her intellect and holiness and historical context, and I wish more Catholic media outlets and saint biographers and catechetical resource developers, etc., would consciously reflect on and push back against this.
I found Edith Stein and Companions on the way to Auschwitz a really good but sad book, and a good introduction to her and those who went with her to their deaths.
https://youtu.be/ZkmXXTCOblI
In the period between her conversion and entering Cologne Carmel, Edith Stein was a sought-after speaker at women's conferences. To call her a feminist would be a misuse of the term, but her addresses to women sound remarkably fresh today, as she encourages them to realise the power that they already have and to use it. /// From Cologne she was sent to a Carmel in the Netherlands the sisters thinking it would be a safe haven. As she was taken from there to Westerbork, the pre-Auschwitz Dutch assembly point, she said to her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic), 'Come, let us go for our people.' Mysterious and challenging words, placing themselves in solidarity with their fellow Jews in their suffering, but still the full meaning of those words eludes us.
What a sad life Eva had only to be murdered by the Nazis. One can only trust that she now enjoys eternal bliss.
I am really grateful for this interview.
There is something that immediately draws me to Edith Stein. I’ve read her biography and other writings. She was incredibly bright but also suffused with a depth of eternal wisdom. A Saint she truly is.
Thank you for this interview. What an exciting project!
I love Edith Stein, but as a parent of a child with autism, I am naturally skeptical of any conclusions that might be drawn from studying historical texts in connection with autism as it is classified today. Even now, there is often inadequate language to accurately describe the social and developmental challenges of autism to those who don’t encounter it every day-e.g., it is very easy to conflate the diagnostic language with just being shy or quiet or sensitive. The poverty of such language was even greater back in Stein’s time, so very susceptible to modern projections. Descriptions of St. Therese of Lisieux as a child are even more colorful, but thankfully I haven’t seen anyone pathologize her beyond attributing her with a spirited personality. If only we could meet the saints in person in this world!
I am a parent of a child with autism (actually two children with autism but one of them can "pass") and I work in a field that is a haven for very high-functioning slightly odd people who in the past would have gone into math (or I suppose music) or, before that, possibly philosophy. I would categorize myself as a very high functioning slightly odd person (I have deficits but they are not insuperable). In the case of most saints, I read their works and see "they are definitely holier than me" but in the case of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross I read (anything that she was not writing for a general audience / nuns) and see "she is definitely holier than me *and smarter than me"". There are people who are smarter than me who are not also slightly odd (like, I have also read St JP2's thesis on St John of the Cross, or rather the book that was published from it, and he is smarter than me also and I doubt anyone has ever proposed that he was not neurotypical, whatever that word means to anyone today), so that by itself doesn't really indicate anything. What I more commonly try to assess from writings is "was this person a mystic (in the sense that I mean the word)" because sometimes you can smell it on someone's breath like salami (e.g. St Thomas Aquinas writing about love somewhere in the Summa) and because this is just a more interesting (though equally unimportant because not necessary for salvation) question.
Am I the only one who’s bothered by the widespread use of “St. Edith Stein” over “St. Teresa Benedicta”?
We don’t speak of St. Agnes Bojaxhiu, or St. Raymund Kolbe, or St. Francesco Forgione, or St. Karol Wojtyla. So why “Edith Stein”? She’s almost the only saint with a religious name I can think of whose birth name is even particularly widely known, much less the one most commonly in use. (I mean, I had to look up “Francesco Forgione” which is a name I don’t think I’ve ever even encountered for a very popular 20th century saint.)
I’m just always trouble by a lot of the narratives around St. Teresa Benedicta, which often have an air of, “Hey fellow Catholics, did you know? We also have our own Jewish Holocaust victim!”
Which seems such a gross oversimplification of her intellect and holiness and historical context, and I wish more Catholic media outlets and saint biographers and catechetical resource developers, etc., would consciously reflect on and push back against this.