Cries in the Night: Women Who Challenged the
Holocaust, by Michael Phayer and Eva Fleischner. Sheed and Ward, 1997.
While Germany occupied much of Europe, there were Christians who dared to oppose the Nazi ways of getting rid of all Jews, even many Jews who were only partly of Jewish origin.
Phayer and Fleischner give the stories of seven good women who defied Hitler and the Nazis by protecting Jews. These women acted courageously, knowing frill well that the price could be to be beaten, put into prison, and/or killed.
Why take this risk? The women acted with compassion and a sense of justice, but
also with the hope and prayer that religious authorities would speak out against the annihilation of the Jewish people. Each of the seven was convinced that it was the mission of the Church to defend the oppressed, a conviction for which they were prepared to die.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman, O.P. for this review.)
Blessed Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin (1823-94; 1831-77): September 25.
Born into a military family in Bordeaux, Louis trained to become a watchmaker. His desire to join a religious community went unfulfilled because he didn’t know Latin. Moving to Normandy, he met the
highly-skilled lacemaker, Zélie, who also had been disappointed in her attempts to enter religious life. They married in 1858, and over the years were blessed with nine children, though two sons and two daughters died in infancy.
Louis managed
the lacemaking business that Zélie continued at home while raising their children. She died from breast cancer in 1877.
Louis then moved the family to Lisieux to be near his brother and sister-in-law, who helped with the education of his five
surviving girls. His health began to fail after his 15-year-old daughter entered the Monastery of Mount Carmel at Lisieux in 1888. Louis died in 1894, a few months after being committed to a sanitarium.
The home that Louis and Zélie created
nurtured the sanctity of all their children, but especially their youngest, who is known to us as St. Thérese of the Child Jesus. Louis and Zélie were beatified in 2008.
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Ex-nihilo is a Latin phrase which means out of nothing. It is often
used by Christians to describe a Biblical view of creation, i.e., Creation ex-nihilo.
