I never take for granted my job teaching college students. I can’t imagine anything more enjoyable, and as a professor in the Engineering and Physical Sciences department I understand that 70 years ago it may have been shocking to have a woman in my position. I’ve never met with resistance as I went after a position in academics, and am well aware of the stories of others before me who did.
This is why I admire St. Edith Stein. This woman sought to be a professor, and unfortunately for her not only lived in a time when this was unheard of, but also in a place where her ethnicity made this dangerous as the Nazis came to control parts of Europe. Her feast day was August 9, and even though I’m a week late (as always, it seems), I wanted to be sure and post her story.
An Academic
In October of 1891, Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany. Her parents were devout Jews and made every effort to raise their children as such. As her father died when Stein was only two years old, her mother took over the heavy responsibility of raising 11 children and running their timber business. Though Stein admired her mother’s strong faith, she became an atheist in her adolescence, saying later “I consciously decided, of my own volition, to give up praying."
Stein enrolled at the University of Breslau to study German and history, but her real interest lay in women’s issues and philosophy. She became a member of the Prussian Society for Women’s Franchise as an undergraduate, and spent the rest of her life advocating for social issues. As she later said, “When I was at school and during my first years at university, I was a radical suffragette. Then I lost interest in the whole issue. Now I am looking for purely pragmatic solutions."
She transferred to Gottington University in 1913 to follow her real passion of philosophy and study under Edmund Husserl, the founder of a field of philosophy called phenomenology, which attempts to describe experiences without metaphysical and theoretical speculations. After a yearlong hiatus to work as a Red Cross nurse in an Austrian field hospital at the beginning of World War I, Stein returned to college and completed her PhD summa cum laude in 1917 with her dissertation “The Problem of Empathy”, inspired in part by her time as a field nurse.
Stein worked as Husserl’s teaching assistant and wanted to become a professor. Unfortunately, this was already a long shot for women in the 1920s, and being of Jewish descent in Germany during that time didn’t help any. Husserl did write recommendations for her, insisting “Should academic careers be opened up to ladies, then I can recommend her whole-heartedly and as my first choice for admission to a professorship.” Ultimately she decided to leave her post as a teaching assistant and work independently, publishing articles about the philosophical foundation of psychology.
Becoming a Christian
Around that same time, Stein began to be influenced by faithful Christians she encountered. When visiting a Protestant friend and widow after her husband’s death on the battlefield in Flanders, she was surprised at the woman’s strong faith in a time of tragedy. Stein said “This was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it ... it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me - Christ in the mystery of the Cross."
In 1921, she picked up the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, read it in one sitting, and decided “This is the truth." She was baptized into the Catholic Church in early 1922. She immediately wanted to become a nun, but her spiritual advisors discouraged her from making such a drastic decision andpushed her to continue in education. So, she taught German and history at the teacher’s training college of a local convent, and at the urging of Arch-Abbot Raphael Walzer of Beuron Abbey accepted extensive speaking engagements, mainly on women’s issues. She was also encouraged by Jesuit priest Erich Przywara to write her own philosophical works during this time, and found herself once again pursuing academia. She realized that it was possible to “pursue scholarship as a service to God... It was not until I had understood this that I seriously began to approach academic work again.”
So, in 1931, she left her position as a teacher at the convent and began pursuing professorship in earnest again. The same problems of being a Jewish woman in the 1920s in Germany were still present in the 1930s, though, and unfortunately she was never offered full professorship. In 1932, she accepted a lectureship position at the University of Munster, a position she loved.
Rise of Nazis
Sadly, her time teaching at the university level was short-lived. In 1933, the Aryan Law of the Nazis swept strongly through Germany and forced Stein out of her position, because of her Jewish heritage. Heartbroken, Stein again begged her advisors for permission to join a convent, insisting “If I can't go on here, then there are no longer any opportunities for me in Germany.” This time, she was not discouraged, and she entered the Carmelite Convent in Cologne. She took the name Sister Teresia Benedicta a Cruce - Teresa, Blessed of the Cross.
Stein saw firsthand the expansion of Nazism, and wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI denouncing the regime and asking him to openly denounce it. In it, she said:
“Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself 'Christian.' For weeks not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany, and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s name. Is not this idolization of race and governmental power which is being pounded into the public consciousness by the radio open heresy? Isn't the effort to destroy Jewish blood an abuse of the holiest humanity of our Savior, of the most blessed Virgin and the apostles? Is not all this diametrically opposed to the conduct of our Lord and Savior, who, even on the cross, still prayed for his persecutors? And isn't this a black mark on the record of this Holy Year which was intended to be a year of peace and reconciliation? We all, who are faithful children of the Church and who see the conditions in Germany with open eyes, fear the worst for the prestige of the Church, if the silence continues any longer.”
It is unknown whether the pope ever read the letter, as he never responded personally to Stein, but he did issue an encyclical written in German (noteworthy, since he was Italian.) entitled Mit brennender Sorge (With Burning Anxiety), in which he criticized Nazism, listed violations of the Concordat between Germany and the Church of 1933, and condemned antisemitism.
Netherlands
By the late 1930s, anti-Semitism became widespread and apparent throughout Germany. Seeing synagogues being burnt and other horrors beginning to take place openly, Stein’s Carmelite sisters and superiors smuggled her to the Netherlands on New Year’s Eve of 1938.
Stein seemed to already know and accept that she would die as a result of Nazism. She wrote her will in 1939, saying “Even now 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.”
All the same, she continued her academic studies as a Carmelite. One of her publications was called “Life in a Jewish Family”, and in it she said that “we who grew up in Judaism have a duty to bear witness ... to the young generation who are brought up in racial hatred from early childhood.”
As it turned out, the Netherlands were not safe from the Nazi regime. On July 20, 1942, the Dutch Bishop’s Conference had a statement read in all churches officially condemning Nazism. Six days later, in retaliation, the Reichskommissar of the Netherlands ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts (they had been spared up to this point). Edith was arrested with her (biological) sister, Rosa, also a convert and Carmelite nun, in their chapel convent as they prayed with the other (religious) sisters. Her last words heard at the convent were directed to Rosa, and were “Come, we are going for our people.”
It is thought that Stein, her sister, and many others were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz August 9, 1942. Her feast day, accordingly, is August 9. It is debated by some whether she was killed for being Jewish, Catholic, or an open critic of the Nazis. Regardless, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II (himself a young Catholic in Nazi Europe) in 1987 as a “a daughter of Israel who… remained faithful to the crucified Lord Jesus Christ and, as a Jew, to her people in loving faithfulness."
Reference:
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19981011_edith_stein_en.html
This is why I admire St. Edith Stein. This woman sought to be a professor, and unfortunately for her not only lived in a time when this was unheard of, but also in a place where her ethnicity made this dangerous as the Nazis came to control parts of Europe. Her feast day was August 9, and even though I’m a week late (as always, it seems), I wanted to be sure and post her story.
An Academic
In October of 1891, Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany. Her parents were devout Jews and made every effort to raise their children as such. As her father died when Stein was only two years old, her mother took over the heavy responsibility of raising 11 children and running their timber business. Though Stein admired her mother’s strong faith, she became an atheist in her adolescence, saying later “I consciously decided, of my own volition, to give up praying."
Stein enrolled at the University of Breslau to study German and history, but her real interest lay in women’s issues and philosophy. She became a member of the Prussian Society for Women’s Franchise as an undergraduate, and spent the rest of her life advocating for social issues. As she later said, “When I was at school and during my first years at university, I was a radical suffragette. Then I lost interest in the whole issue. Now I am looking for purely pragmatic solutions."
She transferred to Gottington University in 1913 to follow her real passion of philosophy and study under Edmund Husserl, the founder of a field of philosophy called phenomenology, which attempts to describe experiences without metaphysical and theoretical speculations. After a yearlong hiatus to work as a Red Cross nurse in an Austrian field hospital at the beginning of World War I, Stein returned to college and completed her PhD summa cum laude in 1917 with her dissertation “The Problem of Empathy”, inspired in part by her time as a field nurse.
Stein worked as Husserl’s teaching assistant and wanted to become a professor. Unfortunately, this was already a long shot for women in the 1920s, and being of Jewish descent in Germany during that time didn’t help any. Husserl did write recommendations for her, insisting “Should academic careers be opened up to ladies, then I can recommend her whole-heartedly and as my first choice for admission to a professorship.” Ultimately she decided to leave her post as a teaching assistant and work independently, publishing articles about the philosophical foundation of psychology.
Becoming a Christian
Around that same time, Stein began to be influenced by faithful Christians she encountered. When visiting a Protestant friend and widow after her husband’s death on the battlefield in Flanders, she was surprised at the woman’s strong faith in a time of tragedy. Stein said “This was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it ... it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me - Christ in the mystery of the Cross."
In 1921, she picked up the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, read it in one sitting, and decided “This is the truth." She was baptized into the Catholic Church in early 1922. She immediately wanted to become a nun, but her spiritual advisors discouraged her from making such a drastic decision andpushed her to continue in education. So, she taught German and history at the teacher’s training college of a local convent, and at the urging of Arch-Abbot Raphael Walzer of Beuron Abbey accepted extensive speaking engagements, mainly on women’s issues. She was also encouraged by Jesuit priest Erich Przywara to write her own philosophical works during this time, and found herself once again pursuing academia. She realized that it was possible to “pursue scholarship as a service to God... It was not until I had understood this that I seriously began to approach academic work again.”
So, in 1931, she left her position as a teacher at the convent and began pursuing professorship in earnest again. The same problems of being a Jewish woman in the 1920s in Germany were still present in the 1930s, though, and unfortunately she was never offered full professorship. In 1932, she accepted a lectureship position at the University of Munster, a position she loved.
Rise of Nazis
Sadly, her time teaching at the university level was short-lived. In 1933, the Aryan Law of the Nazis swept strongly through Germany and forced Stein out of her position, because of her Jewish heritage. Heartbroken, Stein again begged her advisors for permission to join a convent, insisting “If I can't go on here, then there are no longer any opportunities for me in Germany.” This time, she was not discouraged, and she entered the Carmelite Convent in Cologne. She took the name Sister Teresia Benedicta a Cruce - Teresa, Blessed of the Cross.
Stein saw firsthand the expansion of Nazism, and wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI denouncing the regime and asking him to openly denounce it. In it, she said:
“Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself 'Christian.' For weeks not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany, and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s name. Is not this idolization of race and governmental power which is being pounded into the public consciousness by the radio open heresy? Isn't the effort to destroy Jewish blood an abuse of the holiest humanity of our Savior, of the most blessed Virgin and the apostles? Is not all this diametrically opposed to the conduct of our Lord and Savior, who, even on the cross, still prayed for his persecutors? And isn't this a black mark on the record of this Holy Year which was intended to be a year of peace and reconciliation? We all, who are faithful children of the Church and who see the conditions in Germany with open eyes, fear the worst for the prestige of the Church, if the silence continues any longer.”
It is unknown whether the pope ever read the letter, as he never responded personally to Stein, but he did issue an encyclical written in German (noteworthy, since he was Italian.) entitled Mit brennender Sorge (With Burning Anxiety), in which he criticized Nazism, listed violations of the Concordat between Germany and the Church of 1933, and condemned antisemitism.
Netherlands
By the late 1930s, anti-Semitism became widespread and apparent throughout Germany. Seeing synagogues being burnt and other horrors beginning to take place openly, Stein’s Carmelite sisters and superiors smuggled her to the Netherlands on New Year’s Eve of 1938.
Stein seemed to already know and accept that she would die as a result of Nazism. She wrote her will in 1939, saying “Even now 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.”
All the same, she continued her academic studies as a Carmelite. One of her publications was called “Life in a Jewish Family”, and in it she said that “we who grew up in Judaism have a duty to bear witness ... to the young generation who are brought up in racial hatred from early childhood.”
As it turned out, the Netherlands were not safe from the Nazi regime. On July 20, 1942, the Dutch Bishop’s Conference had a statement read in all churches officially condemning Nazism. Six days later, in retaliation, the Reichskommissar of the Netherlands ordered the arrest of all Jewish converts (they had been spared up to this point). Edith was arrested with her (biological) sister, Rosa, also a convert and Carmelite nun, in their chapel convent as they prayed with the other (religious) sisters. Her last words heard at the convent were directed to Rosa, and were “Come, we are going for our people.”
It is thought that Stein, her sister, and many others were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz August 9, 1942. Her feast day, accordingly, is August 9. It is debated by some whether she was killed for being Jewish, Catholic, or an open critic of the Nazis. Regardless, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II (himself a young Catholic in Nazi Europe) in 1987 as a “a daughter of Israel who… remained faithful to the crucified Lord Jesus Christ and, as a Jew, to her people in loving faithfulness."
Reference:
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19981011_edith_stein_en.html