Female Ministers & Shapers of Theology from the Early and Medieval Church Part 1: Thecla
This icon depicts St. Anna (left, Mary’s mother), St. Mary (middle), and St. Thecla (right). Thecla holds the double martyr’s cross, indicating an ascetic life and a martyr’s death.
Image source: George Kalantzis, Visual Museum of Women in Christianity
Thecla
Naked, she stands boldly in the arena facing wild beasts and the jeers of the crowd, her only protection a fierce lioness and the favor of God.[1] Spurning the love of men, craving only the love of God, she watches as the lioness protects her from a lion and a bear. Last time she was here, when the fury of her own mother sent her to be burned, she survived the fire when God quenched the flames with cleansing rain. This time, she dives into the pool of water. Instead of being torn by killer seals, she’s cleansed in the waters of baptism, ministering the sacrament herself. Something changes. The atmosphere in the arena shifts as the women in the crowd throw aromatic herbs and the wild beasts surrender. Her newfound mother figure faints. The games stop. Thecla lives.
Thecla’s story, captured in the second century apocryphal The Acts of Paul and Thecla, was told and retold by Christians for generations. By the end of her story, Thecla resists or escapes men who would force themselves on her three times, and she dies a virgin. Born into a wealthy family, Thecla escapes the expectations placed on women of her station and matrimonial timeline because she hears the preaching of Paul from her bedroom window; he later commissions her to preach.
Modern protestants may not know her story, but the church fathers and early laypeople certainly did. Whether her story was true or not did not seem to bother fourth century Cappodocian father Gregory of Nazianzus, who visited her shrine and considered her an apostolic martyr; or indeed his contemporary Gregory of Nyssa who honored his influential sister, Macrina, with the nickname Thecla.[2] She inspired generations of Christians to take up the ascetic life and the Eastern Orthodox church still celebrates her feast day today.[3]
In Christian history textbooks, Christians today often learn of the important work done by men throughout the history of the church. Popes, bishops, kings, emperors. However, the impact of women’s stories can often be overlooked. Women were there, sometimes quietly, sometimes boldly, living out the shared faith alongside their brothers in Christ. Over the course of early and medieval Christianity, women served the church as martyrs, widows, deacons, influencers of men, political agents, nuns, and so much more. Women were not silent, and their testimonies live on in their own words and in the historical record. In this series of blogs, we will explore a sampling of the myriad ways women shaped the church, from the earliest days through the Middle Ages.
A 6th century Syrian hymn remembers Saint Thecla thus:
“The king shall delight in thy beauty” (Ps. 45:12).
Christ who speaks in Paul
– He who said: “I have come to put fire on the earth” (cf. Luke 12:49–53)
by inflaming with his love the soul of the holy virgin Thecla,
He burned from her the bonds of fleshly brotherhood,
He preserved her virginity in purity,
He supported her in the combat of martyrdom,
He quenched the fire,
And placed a muzzle and a bit in the mouth of carnivorous beasts,
He rendered the idolatrous bondmaid an evangelist and apostolic, preaching and proclaiming the word of life everywhere amid all dangers.
By her prayers bestow, our Savior, upon men and women alike
Thoughts of chastity and thy great mercy.”[4]
Amen.
References
[1] “The Acts of Paul and Thecla,” translated by J.K. Elliott, Oxford University Press, 1993.
[2] Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Hughes, Christian Women in the Patristic World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 22-23.
[3] Cohick and Hughes, Women, 23-24.
[4] Cohick and Hughes, Women, 24.
