She went through two Holocausts--
one as Edith Stein, “Come, we are going
for our people.” And another as
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
bearing her double suffering for Christ.
Like many saints, she could say,
“I am no longer what I once was.”
A scholar intent on an academic life
researching the psychology of
empathy in philosophy. A bright star.
But then Christ called her
to the Carmelites, evocating
in her a deep faith, but still she was
“a little Esther” pleading for her
relatives as they went down
that fatal Auschwitz corridor
with her as she proclaimed
to the world Christ's divinity.
Saint Edith Stein
BY
Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published more than 40 books on Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams as well as fifteen collections of poetry, among them Benedict’s Daughter: Poems (Wipf and Stock, 2017), Wholly God’s: Poems (Wind and Water Press, 2021), and Mapping Trauma: Poems about Black History (Third World Press, 2023). He is also author of A Centenary Garland: Poems about St. Therese of Lisieux (Teresian Press, 2025) and Evangeliaries: Poems (Angelico Press, 2025).