St. Teresa Benedicta had a particular place in her heart for children according to Carmelite Sister Josephine Koeppel, who translated many of St. Teresa’s works from German to English. In the process, Sister Josephine became somewhat an expert about St. Teresa’s life, including the time before she joined the Carmelites when she used her given name, Edith Stein.
In Sister Josephine’s words, “I believe that Edith would have a great interest in all the prayers offered for children, because she had a tremendous love and an absolutely charismatic rapport with children, including her nieces and nephews.” (cited here, para 42)
It’s funny. In my mind, when I picture someone with such a strong personality as Edith Stein, I don’t naturally picture her interacting at all, never mind having “an absolutely charismatic rapport with children.” I suppose this is another example of how easy it is to jump to conclusions about people. So I am enjoying this adjustment to my image of her.
With that said, maybe it makes perfect sense why there are two miracles involving children attributed to St. Teresa Benedicta. The first one was mentioned yesterday. Little Benedicta who ingested an overdose of Tylenol at age 2 and suffered irreparable damage to her liver. The second was a little girl in Germany.
Benedicta’s father was supposed to lead a retreat about the nonviolence of Jesus while Benedicta was in the hospital with a failing liver. Of course, he was struggling to force himself to leave for the retreat, even though I’m sure there was nothing he could do at home. Then he describes what happened when he got home on that Saturday night.
“I walk into the room and I see a book on the floor. I pick it up to put it on the shelf and look at it, 12:00 at night, Saturday. It’s Saint Teresa of Avila’s Way of Perfection. A sentence jumps off the page, Jesus talking to Teresia, and he says, ‘You take care of my business and I’ll take care of your business.’ That answered the question for me of whether or not to go.” (cited here, para 22)
At the exact moment that his retreat concluded, back in Boston, doctors recorded this on Benedicta’s medical chart, “This child has made a remarkable recovery.’“ (same source, para 23) The head of pediatrics, who was a Jewish man, testified to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints confirming that there was no way to explain her recover. It was certainly a miracle.
Here is Sister Josephine’s account of the little girl in Germany.
“The little girl told her mother, ‘Sister came to see me and she made me well,’ So her mother, thinking this was delirium or something, asked what the sister looked like. The girl said she was dressed in brown. She asked whether she said who she was. The girl said, ‘She was Sister Teresia Benedicta something. I can’t remember what the last part was.’ The mother had gone to school at Speyer and knew about Edith Stein, so she told the sisters. They sent the mother back with more questions about the last part of the name. She asked was it ‘of the cross’ (in German)? ‘No,’ answered the girl. ‘A cruce?’ ‘Yes, that’s it!’ said the little child.” Sister Josephine recounts that the girl was too young to know Latin, but that Edith Stein never used her title except in Latin. This German miracle was not documented by Church officials.“ (same source, para 43,44)
Personally, I love this image of St. Teresa Benedicta caring for children. None of the sources I read specifically named her as patroness of any particular cause, but I see her as great saint to turn to for intercessions with regard to children.
In fact, she reminds us how important it is to care for children. Remember that Jesus told us, “unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3) and ” Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14) So it seems we could all learn this lesson from St. Teresa Benedicta to hold particular care for children in our hearts.
Dear Lord, we pray in particular for all the children in our lives today. Please continue to hold them in the palm of your hand, and guide us to show them the love that Sister Teresa showed. We also offer a special prayer for all those children who do not have a safe and loving life in this world. Let there be people in this world who will reach out and make things better for these dear ones.