St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) is a Carmelite nun, a doctor of the Catholic church (since 1970), and the patron saint of headaches, sickness, lace-makers and Spain.

Her feast day is the 15th of October.

Her symbols are a book, an arrow and a heart.

The book because of her mystical writings, most famously her prayers and the Interior Castle. And the arrow and heart because her visions were so strong that her heart was pierced by the arrow of God’s love, the ‘transverberation of her heart’, the ‘ecstacy of St Teresa’.

It can also serve as a metaphor for the power of human imagination. A book is cerebral, the violence from an arrow is physical, the heart is believed to be emotional.

She’s also associated with the dove of peace, and a tambourine for joy. In life, she had a love of music and dancing. She once said, ‘may God protect me from gloomy faced saints‘.

She’s particularly apt for starting over again on New Year’s Day:

O my God! Source of all mercy!
I acknowledge Your sovereign power.
While recalling the wasted years that are past,
 I believe that You, Lord,
can in an instant turn this loss to gain.
Miserable as I am,
yet I firmly believe that You can do all things.
Please restore to me the time lost,
giving me Your grace,
both now and in the future,
that I may appear before You in “wedding garments.”
Amen.