The Miracles of Saint Thekla (21) recounts how *Thekla (follower of the Apostle Paul, S00092) revealed a thief and his cache to the owners of the precious objects that were stolen by him. Written in Greek at Seleucia ad Calycadnum (southern Asia Minor) in the 470s.
Evidence ID
E05598
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Miracles of Saint Thekla, 21
Summary:
There was a wedding, with dancing and celebrations. The bedchamber was prepared and decorated with gold, silver, and costly clothing. Thereupon a thief slipped into the bedchamber and stole the most precious piece, a golden belt studded with gems. He took it to a certain place and buried it. When the loss had been discovered, the wedding turned into lamentation and grief. But the martyr Thekla came to visit the bride's mother, Paula, because she was pleased by the woman's faithfulness. She revealed to her and her husband Chrysermos (a rhetor in the imperial administration), who was one of the leading orators in the imperial administration, the thief and the place where he hid the robbed object. Thus she restored delight and joy to the wedding.
Text: Dagron 1978. S
ummary: J. Doroszewska.
Non Liturgical ActivityRevelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Saint as patron - of a community
MiraclesRevelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
Miracle after death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Officials
The socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Source
The anonymous text known under the title of The Life and Miracles of Thekla was written in the city of Seleucia-on-the-Calycadnum in the province of Isauria in southern Asia Minor around 470. It was certainly written before c. 476, which is approximately when Thekla's shrine outside Seleucia (modern Meriamlik/Ayatekla in Turkey) was monumentalised by the emperor Zeno (r. 474-491), since this activity is not mentioned in the text.The text consists of two parts: the first half is a paraphrased version of the second-century Acts of Paul and Thekla, a text which was widely known in Late Antiquity and translated into every early Christian language; this early text was rendered by our author into Attic Greek, and contains many minor changes to the original story, with one major change at the end: instead of dying at the age of 90 years, Thekla descends into the earth and performs miracles in and around the city of Seleucia in a spiritual state. The second half, from which this passage is drawn, comprises a collection of forty-six miracles, preceded by a preface and followed by an epilogue. It is written in a high literary style which distinguishes it among other hagiographical texts, which were typically composed in a low style of Greek.
The text was for a long time attributed to a 5th century bishop, Basil of Seleucia (fl. c. 448-468); but in 1974 Dagron demonstrated conclusively that the Miracles could not have been authored by Basil, since there is an invective directed against him in chapter 12. The anonymous author is himself the subject of a few miracles, including miraculous interventions on his behalf in ecclesiastical disputes.
Bibliography
Edition:Dagron, G., Vie et miracles de sainte Thècle (Subsidia hagiographica 62; Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1978), with French translation.
Translations:
Johnson, S.F., Miracles of Saint Thekla, in : S.F. Johnson and A.-M. Talbot, Miracle Tales from Byzantium (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 12; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 1-201.
Festugière, A.-J., Collections grecques de Miracles: sainte Thècle, saints Côme et Damien, saints Cyr et Jean (extraits), saint Georges (Paris: Éditions A. et J. Picard, 1971).
Further reading:
Barrier, J., et al., Thecla: Paul's Disciple and Saint in the East and West (Leuven: Peeters, 2017).
Dagron, G., “L'auteur des Actes et des Miracles de Sainte Thècle,” Analecta Bollandiana, 92 (1974), 5–11.
Davis, S., The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Honey, L., “Topography in the Miracles of Thecla: Reconfiguring Rough Cilicia,” in: M.C. Hoff and R.F. Townsend (eds), Rough Cilicia: New Historical and Archaeological Approaches, Proceedings on an International Conference held at Lincoln,
Nebraska, October 2007 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013), 252–59.
Johnson, S.F., “The Life and Miracles of Thecla, a literary study” (University of Oxford, doctoral thesis, 2005).
Kristensen, T.M., "Landscape, Space and Presence in the Cult of Thekla in Meriamlik," Journal of Early Christian Studies 24:2 (2016), 229-263.
Pilhofer, Ph., Das frühe Christentum im kilikisch-isaurischen Bergland: die Christen der Kalykadnos-Region in den ersten fünf Jahrhunderten (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2018).
Record Created By
Julia Doroszewska
Date of Entry
29/05/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00092 | Thekla, follower of the Apostle Paul | Θέκλα | Certain |
|---|
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