De vita ac miraculis Theclae
Standard abbreviation: Life Mir. Thec.
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 792
Category: Apocryphal Acts
Related literature: Acts of Paul and Thecla, Homily on Saint Thecla the Martyr by Severus of Antioch, Martyrdom of Thecla by Symeon Metaphrastes, Panegyric to Thecla by Pseudo-John Chrysostom, Virtuous Deeds of Thecla
Compiled by Andrew Jacobs, Harvard Divinity School
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Jacobs, Andrew S. “Life and Miracles of Thecla.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/life-and-miracles-of-thecla/.
Posted February 2024.
1. SUMMARY
The text is attributed to Basil of Seleucia and was composed between 445 and 474. The first section is a paraphrase of the Acts of Paul and Thecla with some notable changes: Paul does not deny knowing Thecla in Antioch, some of Thecla’s motivations are explained (e.g., Thecla does not immediately come to see Paul because it would not be fitting for a young woman to mingle among the crowd), and several long discourses are added (e.g., when Thecla is reunited with Paul she delivers a speech about all that she has learned from him). The section ends with an account of her departure to Seleucia where she takes residence in a cave on a neighbouring hill. The author mentions briefly her besting of local “demons” (Sarpedon and Athena) and the performance of numerous miracles to the benefit of those who visited her. She “by no means died,” the author writes, but vanished into the earth in her cave, which remains as a shrine where healing miracles continue to occur.
The second book reports the miracles (“wonders”) performed by Thecla at her shrine and in nearby cities. The author includes 46 “miracles” (although some chapters [9, 12, 17] contain more than one miracle and another [44] simply comprises a catalog of holy men and women who have lived at the shrine). The first four miracles follow the narrative of the Life and recount Thecla during her lifetime driving out the “demons” Sarpedon, Athena, Aphrodite, and Zeus from the future site of her shrine and from the city of Seleucia. The remaining miracles all happened within living memory of the author. The author is himself the beneficiary of several miracles: instances of healing as well as preservation from ecclesiastical enemies. From the mention of several different bishops of Seleucia it is clear the author spent a long time composing this text (in miracle 31 Thecla appears to the author to inspire him to continue writing, despite fits of ennui). Fewer than half of the miracles involve healing (of humans and animals); the rest show Thecla defending cities from armies, revealing thieves and evildoers in flagrante delicto, preventing acts of impiety in her shrine, reuniting estranged married couples, and otherwise demonstrating her power. While several of her miracles effect conversions, in other cases non-Christians happily receive the benefit of Thecla’s power while remaining secure in their pagan beliefs. The Miracles give some vivid slices of life in and around the shrine of Hagia Thekla in the last third of the fifth century.
Named Historical Figures and Characters (for the Life only): Alexander (of Antioch), Aphrodite, Apollonius (of Tyana), Ares, Athena, Castellius (governor), Daniel (prophet), Demas (heretic), Elijah (prophet), Elymas, Eutychus, Falconilla, Hera, Hermias, Hermogenes, Herodotus, Homer, Io, Jesus Christ, John (the Baptist), John (son of Zebedee), Lectra, Leda, Luke (evangelist), Mary (Virgin), Moses (patriarch), Nero, Onesiphorus, Paul (apostle), Peter (apostle), Sarpedon, Simmias (son of Onesiphorus), Simon (Magus), Stephen (martyr), Thamyris, Thecla, Theocleia, Theophilus, Thucydides, Titus, Tryphaena, Zeno (son of Onesiphorus), Zeus.
Geographical Locations: Antioch, Athens, Babylon, Carmel, Calycadnus (river), Cappadocia, Cetis, Cyprus, Daphne (Asia Minor), Ephesus, Ethiopia, Iconium, Isauria, Lycaonia, Lycia, Myra, Oriens, Phrygia, Pisidia, Seleucia, Syria.
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Art and Iconography
Altarpiece and Chapel of Thecla, Tarragona Cathedral: images based on the Thecla traditions appear on a twelfth-century altar, a fifteenth-century altarpiece, and in reliefs decorating the eighteenth-century Chapel of Thecla.
Cross with Prayer to Thecla: seventh-century bronze cross from Syria with bust of Thecla and a prayer, reading “Saint Thekla, Help Simionios and Sienesios and Mary and Thekla.”
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Greek
3.1.1.1 Life (BHG 1717) and Miracles (BHG 1718)
V Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1667, fols. 335–364 (10th cent.) ~ IMAGES
M Moscow, Gosudarstvennyj Istoričeskij Musej, Sinod. gr. 26 (Vlad. 384), fols. 1–64 (11th cent.)
A Athens, Ethnikē Bibliothēkē tēs Hellados, gr. 2095, fols. 152v–227v (12th cent.) IMAGES
U Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1853, fols. 94, 96, 5, 38, 45, 39, 44 (10th cent.) ~ fragments only (palimpsest)
Unevaluated:
Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Preussischer Kulturbesitz), Philipps 1446 (42), fols. 1r–62v (17th cent.) ~ Pinakes
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 655, fols. 178v–239r (16th cent.) ~ Pinakes
3.1.1.2 Life only
Family Σ (of Life)
S Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 796, fols. 250–304 (16th cent.) ~ Pinakes
R Paris, Bibliothèque de nationale de France, Supp gr. 240, fols. 7–9, 151–152, 164–175, 177, 179–180 (11th cent.) ~ palimpsest; Pinakes
Q Paris, Bibliothèque de nationale de France, gr. 1521, fols. 219r–259v (12th/13th cent.) ~ Pinakes; Gallica
C Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, gr. Z 586, fols. 200–242 (12th cent.) ~includes miniature fol. 185v; Pinakes
Family Ψ (of Life; includes VMA from above)
B Mount Athos, Monē Philotheou, 9 , fols. 219r–235v, 244r–261v (11th cent.) ~ Pinakes
D Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, A 63 inf., fols. 86r–148r (13th cent.) ~ Pinakes
P Paris, Bibliothèque de nationale de France, gr. 521, pp. 7–139 (12th cent.) ~ Pinakes; Gallica
T Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 1643, fols. 131v–161v (11th cent.) ~ Pinakes
Unevaluated:
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Q 6 sup., fols. 93r–93v (13th cent.) ~ palimpest; Pinakes
Moscow, Gosudarstvennyj Istoričeskij Musej, Sinod. gr. 179 (Vlad. 357), fols. 182–224 (11th cent.) ~ Pinakes
Dagron, Gilbert. Vie et miracles de Sainte Thècle: Texte grec, traduction et commentaire. Subsidia Hagiographica 62. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1978 (Greek edition, pp. 168–282, with French translation).
Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald. “Miracles of Thecla.” Pages 1–201 in Miracle Tales from Byzantium. Edited by Alice-Mary Talbot and Scott Fitzgerald Johnson. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 12. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012 (Greek text and English translation)
Migne, Jacques-Paul. Patrologiae cursus completus: Series graeca. Vol. 85. Paris: Cerf, 1864 (reproduction of text and Latin translation by Pantin, cols. 473–618).
Pantin, Pierre. Basilii Seleucia . . . de vita ac miraculis D. Theclae. Antwerp: Ex officina Plantiniana, apud Ioannem Moretum, 1608 (editio princeps based on at least two sources similar to Vat. gr. 1667 with facing Latin translation, pp. 2–221).
Sonnius, Michel, Claude Morel, and Sébastien Cramoisy. SS. PP. Gregorii Neocaesariensis Episc. cognomento Thaumaturgi, Macarii Aegyptii, et Basilii Seleuciae Episcopi . . . Pais: Iacobaea, 1622 (reproduction of text and Latin translation by Pantin, pp. 230–314).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Honey, Linda Ann. “Thekla: Text and Context with a First English Translation of the Miracles.” Ph.D. diss., University of Calgary, 2011 (partial translation based on edition by Dagron, pp. 362–446).
Jacobs, Andrew S. “Life of Thecla (Ps.-Basil of Seleucia).” Online: http://andrewjacobs.org/translations/thecla.html (preliminary translation based on edition by Dagron).
3.2.2 French
Festugière, André-Jean. Sainte Thècle, Saints Côme et Damien, Saints Cyr et Jean, Saint Georges. Paris: Picard, 1971 (translation of the text by Pantin).
Joachim de La Chétardie. La vie de sainte Thècle, première martyre de son sexe, disciple de l’âpotre S. Paul . . . Clermont: N. Jacquard, 1668 (translation of the text by Pantin, pp. 1–173).
3.3 General Works
Aubineau, Michel. “Compléments au dossier de sainte Thécle.” AnBoll 93 (1975): 356–62.
Cooper, Kate. “A Saint in Exile: The Early Medieval Thecla at Rome and Meriamlik.” Hagiographica 2 (1995): 1–23 (pp. 5–13).
Dabiri, Ghazzal, and Flavia Ruani, eds. Thecla and Medieval Sainthood: The Acts of Paul and Thecla in Eastern and Western Hagiography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Dagron, Gilbert. “L’auteur des ‘Actes’ et des ‘Miracles’ de Saint Thècle.” AnBoll 92 (1974): 5–11.
Davis, Stephen J. The Cult of Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity. OECS. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 (pp. 36–80).
Hill, Stephen. The Early Byzantine Churches of Cilicia and Isauria. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 1. Ashgate: Variorum, 1996.
Hylen, Susan E. “The ‘Domestication’ of Saint Thecla: Characterization of Thecla in the Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla.” JFSR 30.2 (2014): 5–21.
Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald. The Life and Miracles of Thekla, A Literary Study. Hellenic Studies 13. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.
Kateusz, Ally. Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019 (pp. 58–63).
Klauck, Hans-Josef. The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction. Translated by Brian McNeil. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2008. English trans. of Apokryphe Apostelakten. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2005 (pp. 75–77).
Kristensen, Troels Myrup. “Landscape, Space, and Presence in the Cult of Thekla at Meriamlik.” JECS 24 (2016): 229–63.
Pesthy, Monika. “Thecla among the Fathers of the Church.” Pages 164–78 in The Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Edited by Jan N. Bremmer. Studies on the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles 2. Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1996 (see pp. 168–71).
Rordorf, Willy. “Sainte Thècle dans la tradition hagiographique occidentale.” Pages 435–43 in Lex Orandi–Lex Credendi: Gesammelte Aufsätze zum 60. Geburtstag. Paradosis 36. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag Freiburg in der Schweiz, 1993.
———. “La prière de Sainte Thècle pour une défunte paienne et son importance œcuménique.” Pages 445–55 in Lex Orandi–Lex Credendi: Gesammelte Aufsätze zum 60. Geburtstag. Paradosis 36. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag Freiburg in der Schweiz, 1993.
Scheider, Horst. “Thekla und die Robben.” VC 55.1 (2001): 45–57.
Snyder, Glenn E. The Acts of Paul: The Formation of a Pauline Corpus. WUNT 2.352. Tübigen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013 (pp. 104–105).