Description
Saint Edith Stein (1891-1942), known in Carmel as Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was a philosopher born into a Jewish family in Breslau, now Wrocław. She studied with Edmund Husserl and pursued questions about the human person before entering the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne in 1933. This icon joins her intellectual work to her Carmelite vocation through a cross and written scroll.
A life remembered in its historical setting
Baptized a Catholic in 1922, Stein remained deeply conscious of her Jewish origins. After moving to the Carmel in Echt in the Netherlands, she was arrested in 1942 during Nazi persecution of Jews and deported with her sister Rosa to Auschwitz, where both were murdered. The Catholic Church venerates her as a martyr; she is also a co-patron of Europe.
The cross and the written word
The image shows a veiled religious woman holding a slender cross and an unfurled scroll with German lettering. Her pale mantle contrasts with the dark veil, and a halo surrounds her head. These attributes recall both the religious name she took and the place of the Cross in her spiritual writings, including her study of Saint John of the Cross.
Made in Poland on linden wood
Art Christiana makes this icon to order on a linden-wood board with two coats of primer. The image is printed directly onto the prepared surface and finished with decorative gold-tone metal leaf (schlagmetal). A certificate bearing the production year and a hanging fixture are attached to the back.
The icon may accompany prayer in a Carmelite setting, a university chaplaincy or a personal study. It offers a point of reflection on faith, intellectual integrity and human dignity while preserving the memory of the persecution in which she died.