a.k.a. Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, whom Pope John Paul II called "an outstanding daughter of Israel and at the same time a daughter of the Carmelite Order . . . a personality who united within her rich life a dramatic synthesis of our century. It was the synthesis of a history full of deep wounds that are still hurting ... and also the synthesis of the full truth about man. All this came together in a single heart that remained restless and unfulfilled until it finally found rest in God."
On August 7, 1942, Edith Stein and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic convert and a Carmelite nun, were rounded up from their convent and deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed two days later. When the two sisters were arrested, Edith said to Rosa, "Come, we are going for our people."
May Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross intercede for us on her feast day.
UPDATE: Elena Maria Vidal has a comprehensive post about Saint Teresa Benedicta's life at Tea at Trianon. I did not know before reading it that Edith Stein was born on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, surely a very auspicious day for the birth of a great saint.
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