ST EDITH STEIN

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (also known as St Edith Stein) was beatified as a martyr on 1 May 1987 in Cologne, Germany, by Pope John Paul II and then canonized by him 11 years later on 11 October 1998 in Rome. The miracle that was the basis for her canonization is the cure of Benedicta McCarthy, a little girl who had swallowed a large amount of paracetamol (acetaminophen), which causes hepatic necrosis. The young girl's father, Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, a priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, immediately called together relatives and prayed for Teresa's intercession.[26] Shortly thereafter, the nurses in the intensive care unit saw her sit up, completely healthy. Ronald Kleinman, a pediatric specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston who treated the girl, testified about her recovery to church tribunals, stating: "I was willing to say that it was miraculous."[26] McCarthy would later attend Sr. Teresa Benedicta's canonization.

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Benedict of Nursia, Cyril and Methodius, Bridget of Sweden, and Catherine of Siena.

Today there are many schools named in tribute to her, for example in her hometown, Lubliniec, Poland[27] Darmstadt, Germany,[28] Hengelo, Netherlands,[29] and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.[30] Also named for her are a women's dormitory at the University of Tübingen[31] and a classroom building at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Lubliniec in Poland hosts the Edith Stein Museum (Muzeum Pro Memoria Edith Stein) localised on the first floor of the Courant family house (Edith Stein's grandparents' family home). Wrocław hosts a museum called Edith Stein House localised in the house Edith's mother bought for the family in 1919 on the street then called Michaelisstrasse 38 (today Nowowiejska 38).

In Vienna, the Edith-Stein-Haus at Ebendorferstraße 8 is the main location of the Catholic University Chaplaincy and the university pastoral care of the Archdiocese of Vienna. In the spirit of Karl Strobl's model of the "Catholic Student House", the house is also home to a chapel consecrated to Edith Stein as well as a dormitory for about 90 students.[32]

The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre published a book in 2006 titled Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue, 1913–1922, in which he contrasted her living of her own personal philosophy with Martin Heidegger, whose actions during the Nazi era, according to MacIntyre, suggested a "bifurcation of personality."[33]

Playwright Arthur Giron wrote Edith Stein, a play that was inspired by Stein's life. It was produced at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1988.[34]

In 1988, Edith Stein was pictured on a German postage stamp with Rupert Mayer SJ in honor of their beatification.

In 1991, the Italian musician Juri Camisasca released a song inspired by the life of Edith Stein, Il carmelo di Echt (The carmelite convent of Echt) on the album of the same name. The song was later recorded by Giuni Russo and Franco Battiato.

In 1995, Hungarian film director Márta Mészáros made a movie about the life and death of Edith Stein with the title A hetedik szoba (The Seventh Room/Chamber), starring Maia Morgenstern.

In 1999, a memorial statue by German sculptor Bert Gerresheim was dedicated in Cologne, Germany. The statue comprises three different views of Stein reflecting her Jewish and Christian faith, and a pile of empty shoes representing the victims of the holocaust.

In 2007, Stein's life and work was dramatised in the novel Winter Under Water (Picador, London) by author James Hopkin.[35]

In 2008, the first Stolperstein (Polish: kamienie pamięci) that was ever laid in Poland was placed near Edith Stein's childhood home at 38 ul. Nowowiejska (formerly the Michaelisstraße) in Wrocław. Other Stolpersteine for her are in Cologne (several) and Freiburg.

In 2009, her bust was installed at the Walhalla Memorial near Regensburg, Germany. In June 2009, the International Association for the Study of the Philosophy of Edith Stein (IASPES) was founded, and held its first international conference at Maynooth University, Ireland, in order to advance the philosophical writings of Stein.[36]

On 6 June 2014, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, a bell dedicated to her was named by Prince Charles at Bayeux Cathedral.

Also in 2014, the book Edith Stein and Regina Jonas: Religious Visionaries in the Time of the Death Camps, by Emily Leah Silverman, was published.

In 2018, American film director Joshua Sinclair made a movie about the life and death of Edith Stein with the title A Rose in Winter, starring Zana Marjanovic.

In April 2024, during a private audience Pope Francis received a formal request from the superior general of the Discalced Carmelites, Miguel Márquez Calle, to declare Stein a Doctor of the Church. The Discalced Carmelites had first launched an international commission to gather the necessary documentation required for the declaration in 2022, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Stein's conversion to Catholicism and the 80th anniversary of her martyrdom.[37]

Controversy as to the cause of her murder

The beatification of Teresa Benedicta as a martyr generated criticism. Critics argued that she was murdered because she was Jewish by birth, rather than for her Christian faith,[38] and that, in the words of Daniel Polish, the beatification seemed to "carry the tacit message encouraging conversionary activities" because "official discussion of the beatification seemed to make a point of conjoining Stein's Catholic faith with her death with 'fellow Jews' in Auschwitz."[39][40] The position of the Catholic Church is that Teresa Benedicta also died because of the Dutch episcopacy's public condemnation of Nazi racism in 1942; in other words, that she died because of the moral teaching of the Church and is thus a true martyr.[8][41]

Courtesy (Wikipedia)