The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity

Miracles of Saint Thekla, 28

Isauria, the land in Asia Minor where the church of Thekla was, was from time to time invaded by neighbouring pillagers who seized and plundered everything. Once, they attacked the very church and robbed the gold and countless treasures which adorned it. Then they hastened to their homeland of Laistrygonia, being full of joy because they had bested the martyr and because they had suddenly become rich. But the martyr punished them in the following way. She let the robbers get into her temple and steal the treasures, then to carry them away, and escape. Then she confused their eyes and brains, and turned their course back toward the East, to the plain that lies beneath her shrine. There, they met death in a massacre prepared by the troops who, filled with anger, waited for them at the plain and slew all of them in a single day. Then they restored the stolen treasures back to the shrine and praised the martyr, danced, chanted hymns and sang the victory song.

Ὅτι δέ, μεθ’ ἧς ἔχει χάριτος καὶ δυνάμεως εἰς τὸ βοηθεῖν οἷς ἂν δέῃ βοηθεῖν, οἶδε καὶ τοὺς λυποῦντας ἀντιλυπεῖν, καὶ λυπεῖν οὐ μέτρια, καὶ μάλιστα οὓς ἂν αἴσθηται οὐ μέτρια πλημμεοῦντας καὶ δυσσεβοῦντας καὶ εἴς τι τῶν αὐτῆς ἐμπαροινοῦντας κειμηλίων, ἤτοι ψυχικῶν ἤτοι καὶ λειτουργικῶν, οὐ μικρὰ μὲν ἀπόδειξις καὶ τὰ ἄρτι ῥηθέντα· ὅπως ἐπέστησαν οἱ πολέμιοι, καὶ ὅπως ἀπήλλαξαν, μηδὲ τὸν ἐροῦντα ἢ μηνύσοντα τοῖς οἰκείοις τὸ πάθος καταλεῖψαι συγχωρηθέντες. Ἐπισταμένη γὰρ εὖ ποιεῖν ἡ μάρτυς τοὺς εὖ τι δρῶντας κατὰ τὸν βίον, ἐπίσταται καὶ κολάζειν τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς καὶ ἀνόσια τολμῶντας, τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ βασιλέως, οἶμαι, μιμουμένη, παρ’ οὗ πολλά τε φιλανθρωπίας ἔργα καὶ ὀργῆς τεκμήρια εἰς ἀνθρώπους πάλαι τε γεγένηται, καὶ νῦν ἔστιν εὑρεῖν ἔτι γινόμενα· καὶ φιλανθρωπίας μὲν τὴν Νινευὴ πόλιν ὅλην καὶ πολυάνθρωπον ἐξ ὀλίγων δακρύων μετανοίας σωθεῖσάν τε καὶ ὑψωθεῖσαν, ὀργῆς δ’ αὖ πάλιν τὰς Σοδομιτῶν καὶ Γομορρητῶν πόλεις, ὅλον ἔθνος, πανωλεθρίᾳ καταδικασθὲν δι’ ἀνουθέτητον καὶ ἀμετάβλητον πονηρίαν.

'She, with all the grace and power to help those she must help, knows how to afflict those who cause affliction, and in no small measure, particularly those whom she perceives to have immoderately offended her, been impious, or acted recklessly toward any of her treasures, whether ex voto gifts or liturgical objects. No small demonstration of this is the story I just told: how the enemies attacked, how they were wiped out, without even the possibility of leaving anyone behind to tell and inform their people of their bad end. Therefore, if the martyr knows how to treat well those who do some good in their life, she knows also how to chasten the ungodly and those who commit profane acts with boldness, imitating in this, I believe, Christ the King, from whom numerous acts of love as well as signs of his wrath toward men came long ago and can be found to happen still today. He showed his love for humankind when he saved and glorified the entire populous city of Nineveh because of a few tears of repentance. But he showed his wrath in the complete destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, a whole people condemned for their stubborn and incorrigible wickedness.'


Text: Dagron 1978.
Translation: Johnson 2012.
Summary: J. Doroszewska.

Cult building - independent (church)

Feasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)

Saint as patron - of a community
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings

Soldiers
Foreigners (including Barbarians)
The socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)

Precious material objects
Ex-votos

Source

Discussion

Bibliography