Edith Stein

Jewish-German Catholic nun, theologian and philosopher (1891–1942)

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Lived 1891–1942, aged 51Germany

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Era
1891–1942
Aged 51

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

A philosopher who studied under Husserl, converted from Judaism to Catholicism, became a Carmelite nun, and was murdered at Auschwitz — the Church named her a martyr and patron saint of Europe.

Biography

About

Edith Stein was born into an observant Jewish family in Germany in 1891 but had turned agnostic by her teens. She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1916 and became an assistant to Edmund Husserl. Reading the life of Teresa of Ávila drew her to Christianity; she was baptized on 1 January 1922. She wanted immediately to enter the Carmelites but was dissuaded, so she taught at a Jewish school in Speyer until the Nazi government's 1933 Aryan certificate law forced her out. She entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Cologne in November 1933, taking the name Teresa…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Edith Stein

Edith Stein

said23 Mar 1938

God is truth. All who seek truth seek God, whether this is clear to them or not.

— Letter to Sr. Adelgundis Jaegerschmid, 23 March 1938

Edith Stein

said1932

As woman was the first to be tempted, so did God's message of grace come first to a woman, and each time woman's assent determined the destiny of humanity as a whole.

— The Separate Vocations of Man and Woman According to Nature and Grace (1932)

Edith Stein

said1932

Because the sin which she encouraged him to commit was in all likelihood a sin of sensuality, woman is more intensely exposed to the danger of descent into stark carnality.

— The Separate Vocations of Man and Woman According to Nature and Grace (1932)

Edith Stein

said1932

We are being obliged to consider the significance of woman and her existence as a problem. We cannot evade the question as to what we are and what we should be.

— Spirituality of the Christian Woman (1932)

Edith Stein

said1932

Each woman who lives in the light of eternity can fulfill her vocation, no matter if it is in marriage, in a religious order, or in a worldly profession.

— Spirituality of the Christian Woman (1932)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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