Martyr (Co-Patroness of Europe)
St. Edith Stein was born into a Jewish family at Breslau on 12th October 1891. Through her passionate study of philosophy she searched after truth and found it in reading the autobiography of St. Teresa of Jesus.
In 1922 she was baptized a Catholic and in 1933 she entered the Carmel of Cologne where she took the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She was gassed and cremated at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942, during the Nazi persecution and died a martyr for the Christian faith after having offered her holocaust for the people of Israel. A woman of singular intelligence and learning, she left behind a body of writing notable for its doctrinal richness and profound spirituality. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 11th, 1998.
You can have a look at
http://www.fatherpius.littleway.ca/carm.html for various (my) articles on Edith Stein.