A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God and abandoned her Jewish faith as a teenager, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated Saint Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1987 and canonized her 12 years later. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is the patron saint of converts to Christianity and Europe. Saint Teresa Benedicta, pray for us.

Saint Maximillian Kolbe took the place of a man who had a wife and children to die with nine others as punishment because a prisoner had escaped Auschwitz, where Father Kolbe was being held. Ordained at 24, Father Kolbe was a Conventional Franciscan, who died at the hands of the Nazis in 1941. He was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982. He is the patron saint of addicts and those recovering from drug addiction. Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, pray for us.