The Passion of Edith Stein, 2021: A compilation

Each year, we share some aspects of the history of Saint Edith Stein’s final ascent of Mount Carmel, as she experienced her own passion and death in the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. This year, we present a compilation of our posts from the previous seasons, so that you may explore and understand the sequence of events that guided Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as she followed her own Way of the Cross.

“At the end of January [1942] we had to go to Maastricht about our affairs”

Pastoral Letter of the Dutch Bishops, 20 July 1942

2 August 1942, Edith and Rosa Stein are arrested

2 August 1942, Edith and Rosa Stein are transported from Echt to Amersfoort Transit Camp

Historic images of Amersfoort Transit Camp

The eyewitness account from Amersfoort: Dr. Fritz Lenig

The Catholic religious in Camp Westerbork: Carmelite, Trappist, Dominican, and more

Carmelites discuss the Passion of Edith Stein

Saint Edith Stein’s last letter from Camp Westerbork

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A Passion meditation from the writings of Saint Edith Stein

Queen Esther

But there came a day when, through all of creation,
There occurred a fissure.
All the elements seemed
To be in revolt, night enveloped
The world at noon.
But in the midst of the night
There stood, as if illumined by lightning, a barren mountain,
And on the mountain a cross on which someone hung
Bleeding from a thousand wounds; a thirst came over us
To drink ourselves well from this fountain of wounds.
The cross vanished into night, yet our night
Was suddenly penetrated by a new light,
Of which we had never had any idea: a sweet, blessed light.
It streamed from the wounds of that man
Who had just died on the cross; now he stood In our midst.
He himself was the light,
The eternal light, that we had longed for from of old,
The Father’s reflection and the salvation of the people.
He spread his arms wide and spoke
With a voice full of heavenly timbre:
Come to me all you who have faithfully served
The Father and lived in hope
Of the redeemer; see, he is with you,
He fetches you home to his Father’s kingdom.
What happened then, there are no words to describe.
All of us who had awaited blessedness,
We were now at our goal—in the heart of Jesus.

Saint Edith Stein

Dialogue: Conversation at night
13 June 1941

We invite you to join our 2021 Novena to Saint Edith Stein

Pray with us

Stein, E. 2014, The Hidden Life: hagiographic essays, meditations, spiritual texts, translated from the German by Stein, W, ICS Publications, Washington DC.