Faith Matters - Cologne's Holy Women

Who are they? And how did they influence Church and Society? What inspiration do modern women draw from these role models? And what role are women today seeking in the Catholic Church? What image has the Church preserved of these historically important women? And how has it used their stories for its own purposes? How do historians and members of the reform movement Maria 2.0 view these women? The most famous of them is St Ursula, patron of Cologne. Her mortal remains, as well as those of her supposed 11,000 virgin companions, are displayed in the Golden Chamber of the Church of St Ursula. The saint’s existence hasn’t actually been proven historically, but her popularity in the Middle Ages meant that the sale of her relics helped finance the building of Cologne Cathedral. Another important figure is St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born Edith Stein into a German-Jewish family in 1891, she became a protégé of the famous German philosopher Edmund Husserl, who supervised her doctoral studies. Sie converted to Christianity in 1922 and entered the Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1933. The Order sent her to Holland, hoping that she would be safe there from the Nazis, but when the Dutch bishops issued a pastoral letter condemning persecution of the Jews, the Gestapo also arrested Jewish converts to Christianity, who had been spared until then, and deported them to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. There, Edith Stein and her sister Rosa were put to death.