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Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite

Product Description
$15.95

Edith Stein: The Life of a Philosopher
and Carmelite

Teresia Renata Posselt, OCD

Edited by Susanne M. Batzdorff,
Josephine Koeppel, OCD and
John Sullivan, OCD

The first biography of Edith Stein, written by her prioress in the Cologne Carmel, was out of print for half a century. The original text, “a wreath of recollections, lovingly woven together,” is here re-edited and enhanced by scholarly perspectives, and also updated and corrected in the light of information that was not available to the author at the time. The book includes 9 photos. 

Enriched by a broader range of contemporary literature about Edith Stein as philosopher, educator, spiritual writer, and Jewish victim of the Holocaust, this new presentation of the classic biography cited by so many brings the reader closer to the real Edith Stein.

 This revised work is eminently readable. The editors have avoided weighing down this engaging life story with scholarly notes and commentaries. Instead they have relegated such material to a separate section of “Gleanings.” This gives the reader the option of enjoying the biography unencumbered by supplementary matter, or of delving into the Gleanings for more background and information when so desired.

  • ICS code: ICS-ESL
  • Format: paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • ISBN: 978-0-935216-36-3


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The three editors/translators are close to the Stein family as well as to her Carmelite family, which she entered in 1933. Susanne Batzdorff is Edith Stein’s niece and knew her personally. Josephine Koeppel (+) and John Sullivan are both Discalced Carmelites who have dedicated themselves to promoting Edith Stein’s life and work and interviewed several Carmelite religious who lived with Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).

Complementing their notes and comments that deepen our knowledge of the famous phenomenologist and Carmelite is an insightful Foreword contributed by Sister Amata Neyer, OCD, who knew Sr. Posselt personally. She has served as prioress of the Cologne Carmel and as archivist for the Edith Stein Archive.


About the Author


Teresia Renata Posselt, OCD was novice director and later prioress of the Cologne Carmel when Edith Stein was a member of the community. This first biography of the saint is Posselt’s firsthand, warm recollection of Edith Stein. This edition supplements the first with new information not available to the author.