Ser Finito, Ser Eterno

"I, Edith Stein, was born in Breslau on October 12, 1891, and am the daughter of the late merchant Siegfried Stein and his wife, Auguste Courant. I am a Prussian and Jewish citizen. From Easter 1897 to Easter 1906, I attended the Viktoria School in Breslau, and from Easter 1908 to Easter 1911, I attended the Realgymnasium of the same school, where I later took my final exams and passed. At Easter 1915, with an additional Greek exam, I obtained, in Breslau, the certificate of completion of a humanistic Gymnasium, the St. Johannesgymnasium." I studied at the University of Breslau from Easter 1911 to Easter 1913, and then, for a period of four semesters, I studied Philosophy, Psychology, History, and German Studies at the University of Göttingen. In January 1915, in Göttingen, I took the official examination pro facultate docendi in Philosophical Propaedeutics, History, and German. At the end of that semester, I interrupted my studies and, for a period, served with the Red Cross. From February to October 1916, I substituted for a professor who was ill and absent from teaching in Breslau. I then moved to Freiburg to work as an assistant to Professor Husserl.
In 1922, she converted to the Catholic Church. She entered the Carmelite order in 1933, where she received the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1942, she died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz. She was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1988 by Saint John Paul II.