
On the occasion of the feast of our parish patroness and co-patroness of Europe, St. Edith Stein, we celebrated the indulgence feast on Sunday, August 9th. We were visited by brothers from the Dismas prison community, who joined our accused and convicted inmates to celebrate Jesus in his martyrs and to mutually encourage one another in faith and perseverance.
Edith Stein, religious name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (12.10.1891 – † 9.8. 1942, Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau), was a German-Jewish philosopher, discalced Carmelite, martyr of the Catholic Church, declared a saint and a co-patroness of Europe.
Dr. Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher, could have left Europe due to the persecution of Jews. In 1933, she wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI, asking the Vatican not to overlook the persecutions of Jews and Catholics occurring in Hitler's Germany. She converted and became a Carmelite nun. Her writings bear witness to the Christian sacrifice she made for people of all faiths.
“On the Problem of Empathy“, was her 1917 dissertation, in which she focused primarily on the search for truth in life. At the end of her life, she wrote the works: The Science of the Cross and a study on St. John of the Cross. She found that truth in the cross and in love for Christ.
Only Christ is the Truth, uniting knowledge and healing, love and sacrifice.




