A Monument to Edith Stein

With the new monument to Edith Stein, a special dimension is added to the community of outstanding personalities that have come together on the “Road of Recollection”: “holiness”. It is a category that lies beyond the appraisal of a person’s historical significance by means of academic scrutiny. The holy belongs to humankind’s most ancient ideas, yet it is still valid today.
For the world religions, and Catholicism in particular, it holds great vigour which speaks to the fact that it is indispensable for religious life. On October 11, on Peter Square in Rome, 1998, Pope John Paul II canonized Edith Stein as “Theresia Benedicta a Cruce”. Apart from the holy women of the bible, she is the first Catholic saint who was born a Jew. A year later, the pope bestowed further honour on her by elevating her to a high rank in Western religious history: On October 1, 1999, Edith Stein, Brigitta of Sweden and Katharina of Siena were labelled “Patronesses of Europe”. Thereby, Edith Stein’s life that had played a role only in the circles of professional philosophy and after 1933 was relegated to secrecy, suddenly came to the attention of the general public. It is not only the moving fate of a martyr but also the life of an exceptional scholar. With her research in phenomenology and religious studies, she influenced the intellectual climate of her era before her life took a dramatic turn in 1933 and she entered the order of the Carmelites. Her assassination in Auschwitz belongs to the unfathomable crime committed on millions of people. According to all that we know of her, Edith Stein purposefully took the path of sacrifice in a double sense: by identifying with the Jewish people, where she came from, and by the deeply religious emulation of Christ’s passion.
Edith Stein’s personality combined science and religion, intellect and devotion, a fastidious mind and humbleness, Judaism and Christianity. In the beginning, she was influenced by that mix of deep religiousness, Prussian values and German patriotism that was so typical of Jewish families before 1914. During the First World War, she volunteered as a nurse for the Red Cross. Later, she studied philosophy in Göttingen and Freiburg and, gifted as she was, she moved ahead rapidly; already in the 1920s she belonged to the circle of Europe’s philosophical elite. She became one of the key thinkers of educational issues and also became active in trying to achieve equal rights for women. Undergoing a deep religious crisis in 1921, Edith Stein resolved to become a Christian. In 1933, when faced with the persecution of Jews by the National-Socialist regime, she decided to ask the Pope for a private audition, in order to suggest an Encyclical to him. No one within the ranks of the church was willing to take this idea up and Edith Stein abstained from her trip to Rome. Instead, she formulated her request in writing. The letter was sealed and handed to the Pope. After a while, she and her family received the Pope’s blessing – but there was no mention of an Encyclical about the “Jewish question”. After this failure of her pressing political aim Edith Stein conferred the meaning of Christian suffering on the fate she suffered as someone who was persecuted. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War she put down a key note in her testament: “With utter submission under God’s most holy will and with joy I accept the death that He holds for me. I pray the Lord that He may receive my life and my death to His honour and glory”. On the way to Auschwitz, Edith Stein appeared to witnesses like a “pietà without Christ”, immersed in deep sorrow. She rejected offers of help that she received as a woman belonging to a Christian order. “Don’t do that, why should I be exempted? Isn’t this called justice – that I cannot take advantage of the fact that I was christened? If I am not allowed to share the fate of my sisters and brothers then my life is destroyed”.
Theologians and philosophers may feel challenged by the question whether Edith Stein has suffered martyrdom as a Jew or as a Christian. Leaving disputes like these behind, what holds significance for our collection of monuments is the fact that Edith Stein’s position between Judaism and Christianity has created a work of congenial interpretation. The “Road of Recollection” is enriched by a great work of art.

Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-937233-52-9
This book can be obtained in any book store or directly from be.bra Publishing Berlin.
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