Saint Thecla

Description

Thecla or Tecla (Ancient Greek: Θέκλα, Thékla) was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Although Church Fathers Tertullian and Jerome rejected her story, she enjoyed great popularity in the Byzantine period.

Saint Thekla, the Co-Apostle, is an Asia Minor Saint of the first Christian Church from Iconium, referred to as a follower of the Apostle Paul. She embraced Christianity, became a follower of the Apostle and preached herself until her martyrdom, becoming the first female Christian martyr. For this reason he is called the Co-Apostle and the First Martyr.

According to the Acts of Paul and Thecla, Thecla was a young and noble-born virgin from Iconium (the present-day city of Konya, Turkey) who attended Paul’s “virginity discourse”, adopted the teachings of this sermon, and became alienated by her fiancé Thamyrin and her mother Theoclea, who were pagans. According to tradition, she sat for three days at her window listening to the teachings of the Apostle, as he preached from the neighboring house of Onisiforos. Seeing this, Thamyris turned to the Authorities, specifically the ruler Castilius, so that they could punish Paul and Thekla. Castilius then imprisoned and then exiled Paul.
Thekla was miraculously saved from being burned at the stake by the outbreak of a storm, and traveled with Paul to Antioch in Pisidia. There a nobleman named Alexander lusted after Thekla and attempted to rape her.Thekla fought him off, tearing his cloak in the struggle and knocking his diadem from his head. She was thus tried for assault, and condemned to be eaten by wild beasts. But again Thekla was saved by a series of miracles, as the female beasts (and especially the lionesses) protected her from the males. In Antioch also the saint was baptized a Christian.
She rediscovered the Apostle Paul in Myra and then traveled to preach the word of God, becoming an iconic figure who encouraged women to imitate her by living a life of chastity and following the word of the Lord. He then settled in Seleucia, Cilicia (present-day Silifke, Turkey).According to some manuscripts of the Acts of Paul and Thekla, he lived in a cave on the “Mount Kalamon” there for 72 years. However, according to the other main tradition of the Church, Thekla spent the rest of her life in the village of Maalula in Syria. He acquired the gift of healing, performing many miracles, but remained under constant persecution.
Once, as her pursuers were about to catch her, she invoked God, whereupon a new passage opened into the cave, which closed again behind her. The passage and caves are still shown today at Maalula, which is an important pilgrimage site. On one last trip, she was able to go to Rome and lie beside Paul’s tomb.