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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


The Miracles of Saint Thekla (1-3) recounts the triumph of *Thekla (follower of the Apostle Paul, S00092) over the pagan cults local to Seleucia, of Apollo, Athena and Aphrodite. Written in Greek at Seleucia ad Calycadnum (southern Asia Minor) in the 470s.

Evidence ID

E05838

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles

Miracles of Saint Thekla, 1-3

Summary:

1. Thekla, when she had come to Seleucia and arrived at the mountain peak, silenced the oracle of Apollo that was there.

2. Thekla also imposed the rule of Christ on Mount Kokysion, near Seleucia, that had been venerated as a holy place of Athena Kanetis.

3. Thekla also expelled Aphrodite from the city of Seleucia, and armed the bishop Dexianos against her.


Text: Dagron 1978.
Summary: J. Doroszewska.

Miracles

Other miracles with demons and demonic creatures
Miracle after death

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Demons

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

20/06/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00092Thekla, follower of the Apostle PaulΘέκλαCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Julia Doroszewska, Cult of Saints, E05838 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E05838