St. Joan of the Cross

The downtown areas of most major cities hold a population of “street people.” Well-dressed folks usually avoid making eye contact, probably out of being asked for a handout. That was St. Joan of the Cross’s attitude until the day one of them touched her heart. Most people thought the old woman was crazy, but she put St. Joan on the road to sainthood. Who knows what the next beggar we meet might do for us?

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Edith Stein was born of Jewish parents in 1891, becoming an influential philosopher following her extensive studies at major German universities. Following her conversion to Catholicism, she became a major force in German intellectual life, entering the Disclaced Carmelites in 1933. Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was arrested by the Nazi regime on August 2, 1942, and transported by cattle train to the death camp of Auschwitz where she died in the gas chambers on August 9, 1942.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Quote

A few days before her deportation and execution, she had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: "Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share in the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed."