In the Fall of 2022, I was five months pregnant with my second baby. Soon after learning that we were expecting a girl, my husband and I chose the name Olympia Benedicta in honor of two Catholic women we greatly admired: Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and Blessed Olympia Bida. As the birth of our daughter neared, I unexpectedly realized that the lives of these two women revealed important truths about politics and faith that are as relevant today as ever.
Teresa Benedicta was born Edith Stein in Breslau, Germany in 1891. Her family was devoutly Jewish, but in her teens became an atheist. Edith possessed a brilliant mind, earning her doctorate in philosophy at a time when this was highly unusual for women. Her desire for truth matched her intellectual prowess; influenced by the example of some Protestant Christian friends and by St. Teresa of Avila’s autobiography, in 1921 Edith “discovered that truth had a name: Jesus Christ.” Soon after, she was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church.
For the next decade, she taught, spoke, and “pursue(d) scholarship as a service to God.” In 1933, her longtime desire to enter the Carmelite convent was fulfilled, and she took the name Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Sr. Teresa Benedicta was transferred from Germany to a convent in the Netherlands to escape the persecution of the Jews in 1938. In 1942, she was arrested and taken to Auschwitz, along with many other Christians of Jewish descent, as punishment for the Dutch Catholic bishops’ denunciation of the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews. Inspired by her love of Christ, Sr. Teresa Benedicta refused offers of escape, choosing to suffer with and for her Jewish people. She died a martyr of the Christian faith in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.
Olympia was born Olga Bida in 1903 in what is now western Ukraine. She belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (a Byzantine rite church in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church). Olga entered the Sisters of St. Joseph at a fairly young age, taking the name Sr. Olympia, and became the superior of her religious community in 1938. In 1950, she was convicted of “anti-Soviet activities” and sent to the Gulag in Siberia. Olympia remained steadfast in her faith, continuing to act as superior for her fellow sisters in the Gulag, ultimately dying a Christian martyr in 1952.
In their early years, Edith Stein – a German Jew – and Olga Bida – a Ukrainian Catholic in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire – appeared to have little in common. Nonetheless, Teresa Benedicta and Olympia both ended their lives as Catholic nuns martyred under totalitarian regimes. Reflecting on both the uniqueness and similarities of their stories yields three important insights.
First, the political spectrum is circular, not linear. Olympia gave her life for Christ under the persecution of a leftist regime (the Soviet Union). Teresa Benedicta was killed for her Jewish heritage and Christian faith by a right-wing regime (Nazi Germany). While the language of left and right suggests opposites, the martyrdom of Teresa Benedicta and Olympia reminds us that politics, whether left or right, end in the same place when straying too far from the laws of God and nature. This is not to say that the ideal social order is necessarily politically neutral or “centrist”; rather, it is a reminder that simply claiming the mantle of “left” or “right” does not guarantee alignment with Christian morality, and both political tendencies have the capacity to descend into totalitarianism. In our highly polarized political climate, it is easy to excuse the errors of those on our “side of the aisle” or to become complacent in our political identities. The martyrdom of Teresa Benedicta and Olympia are a stark reminder that political systems in opposition to human dignity, whether “left” or “right,” ultimately oppose Christ. We must have the courage to correct and reject errors, even within our own political affiliations, and to vigilantly guard against the devolution of political philosophy into political ideology.
Second, the conflicts and hatreds of today have deep historical roots. My husband and I chose the name “Olympia” for our daughter in part to honor the Ukrainian people as they fought for their lives and freedom; at the time, we could not have imagined that “Benedicta” would soon take on heightened significance, as Teresa Benedicta’s beloved Jewish people became the targets of the October 7 terrorist attack and a worldwide outbreak of antisemitism. As the wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land continue to rage, “alternative” historical accounts that demonize both Ukrainians and Jews, denying their past persecution, have become increasingly fashionable in the West, even among some Christians. As the lives of Teresa Benedicta and Olympia demonstrate, however, the Nazi persecution of the Jews was very real, as was the Soviet persecution of Ukrainians. This persecution often overlapped with persecution of Christians, as the Nazis targeted Christians of Jewish descent, while the Soviets tried to destroy the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and force the faithful to convert to state-sponsored Russian Orthodoxy.
Third and finally, Sr. Teresa Benedicta and Sr. Olympia remind us that the ultimate Christian response to injustice and totalitarianism is not political activity, but Christ-like self-sacrifice. It can be tempting to think that the solution to bad politics is simply good politics, and this is true to a certain extent. As both Teresa Benedicta and Olympia knew from harsh experience, politics matters, and Christians are called to be part of building a just political order. Yet, Christ taught that His Kingdom is not of this world. By His Passion and death on the Cross, He demonstrated that the Christian mission is not primarily political (much to the chagrin of those hoping for a Messiah who would be a military leader or earthly king). Teresa Benedicta perfectly articulated this truth when she said: “Human activities cannot help us, but only the suffering of Christ. It is my desire to share in it.” Both Olympia and Teresa Benedicta responded to the evils of totalitarianism by sharing in the suffering of Christ, reminding us that the Cross is the only true solution to the world’s problems and that all Christians are called to embrace that Cross.
In a world that feels like it is spinning out of control, it is worth telling these stories together, for doing so reminds us that “the cross is steady while the world is turning.” God does not expect all Christians to become literal martyrs, but He does ask all of us to embrace suffering for His sake and place our faith not in human ideologies or endeavors, but in the Cross. Only by clinging to the Cross, as Olympia and Teresa Benedicta did, can we remain steady – both in our political activities and in our faith.