St. Teresa Benedicta of the cross, Edith Stien , nun and scholar (1891-1942) Feast day 9th August

On 11th of October 1998 Pope John Paul II canonized Teresa Benedicta of the cross. She is canonized as both a martyr and saint of the Catholic church

Edith Stein took this name when she became a novice nun in 1933/4 when she entered the Discalaced Carmel of Cologne.

Edith was the youngest of 11 children .She was brought up in a Jewish family Her father died when she was only 2. She became an atheist ( other sources say agnostic) in her teenage years. In1915 she took lessons to become a nursing assistant. She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Gottengen in 1916 and obtained an assistantship at the University of Freiburg.

She was drawn in 1921 towards the Catholic faith after reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. The next year, 1922, she was baptised a Catholic

In 1938 Edith, and her sister Rosa, were sent to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands, for their safety, from the Nazi invasion. On August 2nd 1942 the two sisters, along with many others, were arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. On the 9th of August they died in the gas chamber.

A woman of singular intelligence and learning she left behind a body of writing notable for its richness and profound spirituality. www.carmelitedcj.org
I have included the letter she sent to Pope Pius XI.
I have used information from wikipedia, carmelite and Historica’s Women