Thecla: Paul’s Disciple and Saint in the East and West

This book is the first modern collection of studies about the

fascinating figure of Thecla and the development of her cult in East and

West. While her role in the Acts of Paul and Thecla has often

been analysed, and was the subject of an earlier volume in this series,

the historical development of her cult from early Christian to modern

times has received much less attention and is therefore the subject of

this book.

The volume starts with a series of four studies that trace her cult and

its literary manifestations from late Antiquity to Byzantine times. We

hear about visions of Thecla and additional miracles beyond those

already known, and we can follow her cult from Asia Minor, through

Syria, to Turfan in modern Western China, although the autonomy and

uniqueness of Thecla was often suppressed in these new localities. From

the East we move to the West where her figure appears in Latin texts and

a previously unpublished Arabic version of the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

Subsequently, three chapters analyse representations of Thecla in

Turkish Ayatekla (ancient Seleucia), in the grotto of St Paul in Ephesus

and in Coptic iconography. From the East we then move back to the West,

particularly to Spain. Thecla’s cult was brought from Asia Minor via

Armenia to Tarragona, where it remains alive today. The last two

chapters look at the historiographical trajectories of the Acts of

Paul and Thecla and the testimonies of the Christian martyrs,

respectively. As has become customary, the volume concludes with an

extensive bibliography and detailed index.