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 Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern Mississippi, a scholar and poet whose work listens closely to the human heart. Across more than forty books — from studies of Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams to finely wrought collections of poetry — he traces the places where language becomes prayer, witness, and healing. His poetry moves through themes of faith, justice, and the fragile beauty of the American South, offering readers a voice attentive to mystery and alive to the world’s quiet revelations.