Titus Brandsma is best known for courageously speaking out against the ideology of National Socialism and for defending the freedom of the Catholic press to refuse their propaganda. Indeed, it was his activities as a Catholic journalist and on behalf of Catholic journalism that placed him in the crosshairs of the Nazi authorities. But his imprisonment and eventual death in the concentration camp of Dachau was preceded by a notable academic career and a life of tireless service. As Paul Chandler reveals in this ground-breaking volume, the torture and “experiments” that he suffered in the infirmary at Dachau included shocking examples of sexual abuse, according to the infirmary nurse who administered the fatal injection, whose eye-witness account previous biographers have glossed over. For the first time, Chandler provides an English translation of her complete testimony. Additional material reminds us of other major Carmelite “witnesses to truth” during World War II, including St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) and Père Jacques Bunel. All of them show that authentic Carmelite and Christian spirituality is not something abstract and ethereal, but has social consequences, and that mystical prayer must express itself in prophetic words and actions.

Vatican II initiated lively conversations about the identity of religious orders and congregations when the council pointed out that these religious communities are divine gifts in and to the church. Keith Egan examines the nature of these charisms including, not only the original or founders’ charism, but how charisms evolve over the centuries. Special theological attention to these charisms show that they are not something but, in fact, are the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit. This volume offers a case study the original charism of the Carmelites. The first Carmelites originated when various hermits were displaced by the armies of Saladin. These dislodged hermits sought refuge on Mount Carmel in a ravine facing the Mediterranean Sea. There, these hermits, now Carmelites, sought from Saint Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, a description of their life of solitude. Albert’s Formula of Life describes the original Carmelite charism as a life of prayer and contemplation. This Formula eventually became a Rule that made possible a transformation of hermits into friars. Egan is at work on a sequel that examines this radical transformation.