Teresa Benedicta spent much of her life searching for truth.
Born Edith Stein and raised in a Jewish family, she became an atheist when she was young. She studied philosophy and spent years questioning faith, life, and its meaning.
In 1921, she read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila in one night. When she finished, she said, “This is the truth.” She became Catholic in 1922 and later entered the Carmelite order, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
At her canonization in 1998, Pope John Paul II connected her search for truth with love. He said:
“Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth.”
Truth without love can become cruel. Being right does not give us permission to hurt people.
Love without truth can become dishonest. Saying what people want to hear is not always an act of love.
Because of her Jewish ancestry, the Nazis arrested Teresa Benedicta and killed her at Auschwitz in 1942.
She found truth in faith, but she did not leave love behind.
Truth needs love. Love needs truth.
Let’s keep learning the saints’ way—day by day.
⌨ ᴛʸᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᴏᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ʙˡᵘᵉ ᵈᵃʳᵉᵐ ᵐᵘˢⁱᶜ ᵇˡᵒᵍ