St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross – Saint of the Day – 9th August
St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was the professed name of Edith Stein, who was martyred, alongside her sister Rosa, at Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp in 1942. Edith Stein was a Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity at the age of thirty-one and became a Carmelite nun twelve years later. As a young professional woman she was involved in the struggle for women’s rights. Pope St John Paul II declared her one of the patron saints of Europe in 1999.