“I dreamed of happiness and fame. I was convinced that I was destined for something great and that I did not fit into the narrow, bourgeois frames in which I was born,” wrote Sister Teresa Benedykta od Krzyża.
Nervous, oversensitive, capricious and stubborn. "Little Ambitious," Aunt Cilla called her. When she wanted something, she forced everyone to fulfill her whims and easily subjugated her numerous siblings, cousins and aunts. Who are we talking about?
Edith Stein
She was born on October 12, 1891 in a Jewish family. She was the eleventh child of Augusta and Siegfried Stein. As the only one of her siblings, she was born in Wrocław . Her older brothers and sisters were born in Gliwice and Lubliniec, Augusta's hometown.
“I was small and delicate and always pale, despite being so carefully cared for. I wore my blonde hair (later it darkened) loose, only tied with a ribbon. That's why I looked younger than I really was.
But when I started talking, everyone was amazed at what a small, nosy person I was. In the first years of my life, I was like quicksilver, constantly on the move, bursting with an excess of funny ideas, brash and nosy, and unbridled stubbornly stubborn when something went against my will.
“From early childhood, my relatives defined me mainly on the basis of my two characteristics: I was considered ambitious (and rightly so), and I was nicknamed 'the wise Edyta '. Both hurt me a lot. Especially the latter, because it sounded like I was being conceited and - just smart. And I knew from an early age that it was much better to be good than smart,” she wrote.
Wrocław – six addresses
Edyta was born in a non-existent house at ul. Dubois 13. When she was two years old, her father died of sunstroke. Overnight, my mother became a widow with seven children and an indebted firewood trading company.
A difficult time began , but Augusta did not give up. She had no time to grieve, she had to take care of her children's future, and her only source of income was the company. Difficulties were not lacking. She got up first when it was still dark. First, she ran a business at ul. Niemcewicza, but here the unfriendly neighbor barred the gate through which she passed, so she had to jump over the fence.
Thanks to her diligence, she developed the company into a thriving enterprise. In her autobiography, Edyta recalls the words of a random man she heard on a tram: "Do you know who is the best buyer in the entire industry here? Miss Stein.
At that time, everyone lived frugally. “She stopped at almost nothing. Most often, what was needed was given to the mother for her birthday, because otherwise she was too defensive about accepting something new,” recalled Edyta.
After her husband's death, when the family's financial status decreased, Augusta and her entire family moved one by one to houses at ul. Kurkowa, Myśliwska, Henryka Pobożny, Roosevelt, and finally, only when the company was successful, to the purchased villa at ul. Nowowiejska 38.
Lubliniec – happy holidays
Edyta's childhood, despite the shadow cast by her father's early death, was not only about moving to Wrocław, but also about happy holidays in her grandfather's grand, affluent house and the hardware store adjacent to it. These are her mother's numerous siblings, whose names she learned by heart. Sideboard with drawers full of raisins, almonds and dark chocolate.
Laughs, jokes and jokes . Grandpa's face full of tenderness and kindness, candied fruit taken out of cakes by him and surreptitiously stuffed into his grandchildren's mouths.
"I'm going home!" cried Augusta as the departure approached and the packing began. The chaos before departure and the hardships of the journey were compensated by the smiling face of my grandfather and the warm hugs of my aunts. All the children felt that their mother's home was also their home. Lubliniec always welcomed them in the same way: with open arms.
“In the spacious house of my grandfather, it was possible to move around in a completely different way than in our cramped rental apartment in Wrocław. We knew every nook and cranny here and greeted everyone joyfully,” wrote Edyta many years later.
The patient and loving grandfather Salomon dealt with the moods and stubbornness of his youngest granddaughter. With him, Edyta did not fight for anything and did not prove anything. After arriving in Lubliniec, the Stein sisters often sat on the large step of the stairs in front of the shop. Edyta watched, Erna called her world.
Even though they were only eighteen months apart - wearing the same dresses, reading the same books, loving telling each other stories about the fall of horror, going to school together and playing with the same friends - they were completely different. "Erna is transparent as clear water, while I was a book closed with seven seals," wrote Edith.
Love of grandparents, good roots
Edyta's maternal grandparents, Adelhied and Salomon, were remembered by the inhabitants of Lubliniec as people of extraordinary kindness and honesty. Salomon Courant was a soap and candle maker. He chose Adelheid when she was 12 and, loving her, waited for her to grow up.
With her, shortly after the wedding, he opened a colonial shop , which prospered for years and brought profits to the entire large family. They had fifteen children. Edith's mother, Augusta, was the fourth in line. “There were portraits of my grandparents hanging above the sofa in our room,” Edyta wrote. – My grandmother's beautiful, delicate face, framed by a white bonnet, expresses seriousness and suffering. Grandma died before I was born. So I only know her from the story. (…) Children with their little troubles ran to their father rather than to her. You went to your grandmother for advice on the most serious matters.
three times no
Edyta's upbringing is, on the one hand, the requirements clearly set by Augusta: household duties (adjusted to her age), a ban on idleness, the need to go to school and get a profession, but on the other hand, respect and complete freedom of choice in making decisions. First, freedom in matters relating to education and career choice.
The first and second "no" concerned school. Edyta, as the youngest, attended kindergarten, but she did not like this place very much. Her biggest dream was to go to school with Erna. She stubbornly persuaded her mother to agree, and she finally gave in.
Edyta started her education on her sixth birthday , a year earlier than usual. She was diligent and very talented, which is why everyone was surprised when, at the age of fourteen, she decided to ... finish her studies.
In her autobiography, she explained: "The real reason was a healthy instinct telling me that I had been in school for quite a long time and needed something else." This was the second, decisive "no" of the future saint.
Destined for something great
Here the paradox of her personality is revealed: first the stubbornness to go to school early, then the stubbornness to drop out of school. What parent can handle such a volatile and stubborn child? The mother accepted this decision, but did not agree to inaction. She sent Edyta to Hamburg, to her older daughter, to help with household chores.
The third "no" was a blow to the heart of Jewish roots and origins. The last of the most difficult conversations Edyta had with her 84-year-old mother in Wrocław, while returning home from the synagogue. It was then that Augusta heard that her daughter was not only already Catholic, but was going to become a nun .
Edith, according to Augusta, said "no" to Abraham's God, and not to her, Augusta... Let's imagine a situation like this today: a child suddenly doesn't want to go to church. What do parents do?
And yet, despite her death in Auschwitz and humanly tragic fate, many years later the "little ambitious", stubborn Edith Stein, became a saint and patron of Europe. “First of all, I always saw a great future,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I dreamed of happiness and fame. I was convinced that I was destined for something great and that I did not fit into the narrow, bourgeois framework in which I was born.” Who knows, maybe that's not how God hears the prayers of his children?