News & Events

Dr. Dianne Traflet to Speak about St. Edith Stein
Seton Hall > News & Events 

Friday, September 11, 2009
by: Dianne Traflet, Ph.D.

       

Dianne Traflet, Ph.D.

Dr. Dianne Traflet will be speaking about St. Edith Stein and the Catholic Priesthood at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16 in Boland Hall. This COMPASS event, which is sponsored by Campus Ministry, earns attending students credit toward priority points.

St. Edith Stein, philosopher and Carmelite nun, died in Auschwitz in 1942. Raised in a Jewish family, Edith experienced a crisis of faith in her mid-teens, and continued to struggle with religious questions throughout her young adult years. At the age of 31, she read the autobiography of St. Theresa of Avila, and soon thereafter, converted to Catholocism. Following the advice of priest spiritual directors, Edith did not join a convent immediately (her heart's desire), but stayed in the secular world, writing, teaching, and lecturing. For 11 years, Edith was mentored by priests of various orders and dioceses, and collaborated with them on philosophical and theological projects. When she entered the convent at the age of 42, she continued to correspond with priests, giving and recieving spiritual advice and support. When the Dutch bishops spoke out against Nazism in the summer of 1942, Edith and other Catholics who had converted to Judaism were arrested and sent to their deaths. Pope John Paul II canonized Edith in 1988, and declared her co-patroness of Europe in 1999. 

Dianne Marie Traflet, J.D., S.T.D., is Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICSST) at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ. The founder and co-director of the Seminary's Institute for Christian Spirituality, Traflet recieved her B.A. from Montclair State University and her J.D. from Seton Hall University of Law. She practiced law for four years while earning her M.A. in Catholic Theology and Pastoral Ministry from the Institute for Advanced Studies of Catholic Doctrine at St. John's University in New York. She then studied at St. Thomas Aquinas University (the Angelicum), Rome, where she earned a licentiate and a doctorate in Sacred Theology, focusing on the life and work of St. Edith Stein. Traflet has given numerous presentations, retreats, and days of recollection here in the United States, as well as England, Ireland, Canada and Italy, emphasizing the spirituality of Edith Stein, as well as related topics in spiritual theology. She is the author of Edith Stein: a Spiritual Portrait. 

For more information, contact Noreen Shea at noreen.shea@shu.edu. Should you require special accommodations for the program please call Disability Services at (973) 313-6003.

For more information please contact:
Noreen Shea
(973) 313-6187
noreen.shea@shu.edu