My birthday, August 9, is the feast day of Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, my Confirmation saint. This year her feast falls on a Sunday so it is not mentioned on any of my Catholic calendars. She was a Jewish convert, a philosopher & professor- a phenomenologist like Pope JPII & the foundational thinker who contributed to his own philosophy/theology of the "feminine genius," and a cloistered Carmelite nun who was martyred at Auschwitz as a result of the Nazi purging of Catholic monasteries in Denmark after the Dutch bishops spoke out against the Third Reich in no uncertain terms.
Some quotes of hers:
I always think of queen Esther who was chosen from among her own people to intercede before the king for her people. I am a little Esther poor and impotent, but the king who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. And this is a great consolation. (Letter 131)
One cannot desire freedom from the cross when one is especially chosen for the cross. (Letter 146)
Faith in the secret history of souls ought to fortify us when what we see externally (in ourselves and in others) takes away our courage. (Letter 148)
The whole work of education should be sustained by love which ought to be manifested in every correction, and it should certainly not be replaced by fear. The most efficacious educational means, then, is not the instruction, but the living example; without this all words are useless. (Woman. 11)
Is the extra-domestic professional activity of woman contrary to the order of nature and grace? I think not. All the powers of man are also present in the nature of woman: even if in different measure and in different proportion- this is proof that she too can use them in activities that correspond to her. These powers are limited when professional activity begins to hinder domestic life, namely the good of the family, composed of parents and children, in which one receives life and education. (Woman. 93)
