"They are Israelites, theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises; theirs the patriarchs and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."
These words from St Paul's Letter to the Romans show the love the Apostle to Gentiles had for his own people, the Jews. We think of another Jewish convert to Christianity, and her continued love for the Jewish people -- St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein. Today is the feast of St Edith Stein, and we consider two other saints of the Holocaust, St Maximilian Kolbe and Blessed Titus Brandsma.
Blessed Titus died by lethal injection for refusing to promote pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda. He gave his Rosary to the nurse who killed him, and won her conversion.
St Maximilian Kolbe is very famous and well known. As a boy, he told our Lady that he desired perfect purity and the gift of martyrdom. He gave his life in Auschwitz in the place of a man with a wife and children.
St Edith Stein was raised in a devout Jewish home, but became an atheist when she was thirteen. She was extremely intelligent and went on to become one of the greatest philosophers of her time. She was converted to Catholicism by reading the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila, and later joined the Carmelite order, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She gave her life to be united with her people, dying in Auschwitz.
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