St. Teresa Benedicta, your hunger for truth and courageous example still inspires us. You spent your life humbly accomplishing great works, focusing your energy into the few minutes allowed for your intellectual work. Look upon your tired and needy sisters on this earth, and pray that we will receive the grace needed each day to make every minute of every day fruitful.

We ask your intercession for:_____________(mention your petition here).  We place all things upon the altar of God, not knowing how they will be used, and asking for the humility to receive God’s grace and to sacrifice willingly for the sake of the Kingdom where we yearn to join you in eternal peace. Amen.

 (click "Read more" to learn about this icon!)

Sallie Thayer is an artist in Canada. She works on a computer because her hands can no longer paint. She has very affordable prices for her icons. Email her directly to order: sallie@ican.net  

Here is her account of how she 'wrote' this lovely tribute to our great patroness:

My inspiration for the icon came from looking into her eyes.  I spent quite some time searching for photos of her on the Internet and in so many of those black and white photos, St. Edith’s eyes seem to speak to me.  They had about them, especially the later ones, that look of abandonment to God and to His blessed Will.  I call it the “open hands look”.

So when it came to drawing her hands, I wanted to suggest that the book and crucifix – the two items which were so important in her life -- are about to fall from her hands as she is slowly stripped of all the things she valued most – just as her Lord was.  When these items fall away, her hands will be empty.
The halo, which is surrounded by barbed wire (thorns), is the same colour as the yellow star – on purpose.  
 
I, personally, feel that the yellow star is the most important bridge between Jews and Christian in St. Edith’s ministry.  She died as a Christian with forgiveness in her heart, following in the footsteps of her Master, but she died because she was Jewish and as a Jew, she willingly took her stand with her people – all the way to the gas chambers.
 
For me, the following is one of St. Edith’s powerful statements (in all its simplicity) and was one of the inspirations for me as I began working on this icon:’
"When night comes, and retrospect shows that everything was patchwork and much that one had planned left undone, when so many things rouse shame and regret, then take all as is, lay it in God's hands, and offer it up to Him. In this way we will be able to rest in Him, actually to rest and to begin the new day like a new life."
 
(This quote and reference are taken from a speech given by our late Holy Father, John Paul II.)
 
I feel that at the end --, that final night on earth, she laid everything in God’s hands – just as she had been doing every day of her faith life – letting go of all those things we try to hold onto as though they will somehow protect us from the darkness, and rested, actually rested in Him – and He, in turn, led her into a “new day”.