Evidence ID
E01319Saint Name
Thekla, follower of Apostle Paul : S00092Saint Name in Source
ΘέκλαImage Caption 1
Squeeze; from Sittig 1914, 3.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)Evidence not before
1Evidence not after
600Activity not before
1Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
LapethosPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Lapethos
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Prayer/supplication/invocationSource
A white marble slab, broken and lost on the right- and left-hand side. H. 0,085 m; W. 0,37 m; Th. 0,093 m, letter height 0.03-0.033 m. First recorded in February of 1914 by Ernst Sittig, close to the northern wall of a modern church dedicated to St Menas near Lapethos/Lapta, by the road from Kerynia/Girne to Myrtou/Çamlıbel. Sittig made a squeeze and the inscription was first moved to the church, and then to the Cyprus Archaeological Museum in Nikosia.Discussion
The inscription mentions the name of Thekla, follower of *Paul the Apostle and the first female martyr, in the genitive form. The editors completed the text as a command to remember Thekla, probably addressed to the reader. This is strange, as normally, one would expect the formula μνήσθητι/'remember' to appear in an invocation of a saint. Perhaps the preserved line was a part of a longer prayer, for example: [ὁ θ(εὸ)ς τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ἐνδόξης πρωτο]μάρτυρος Θέκλης, μνήσ[θητι - - -]/'[O God of the holy and glorious first] martyr Thekla, reme[mber (name of the supplicant)]!' Terence Bruce Mitford identified the object as an "architectural inscription", he must have supposed that it came from a church dedicated to Thekla.
The main site of the cult of Thekla was Seleukeia/Seleucia in Isauria, southern Asia Minor, located just opposite the northern shore of Cyprus.
Dating: Terence Bruce Mitford dated the inscription to the 6th c., based on the forms of letters. Sittig implausibly argued that the inscription was carved in the second half of the 1st c. AD: δεικνύει ὅτι δεῖ τὴν ὑπ' ἐμοῦ εὑρεθεῖσαν (...) ἐπιγραφὴν νὰ θῶμεν εἰς τὸ δεύτερον ἥμισυ τοῦ πρώτου μΧ αἰῶνος, as he claimed that the lettering was identical to that of an inscription from Lapethos, erected in honour of the emperor Tiberius (AD 14-37), and as in the inscription of the proconsul Paulos, believed to have been the governor of Cyprus Sergius Paulus, mentioned in the Acts (13,6-12).Bibliography
Edition:
Sittig, E., “Ἡ ἁγία Θέκλα”, Εφημερίς αρχαιολογική (1914), 2-3.
Further reading:
Halkin, F., "L'Egypte, Chypre, la Crète et les autres îles grecques. La Grèce continentale et les pays balkaniques. L'Italie et la Sycylie", Analecta Bollandiana 70 (1952), 118.
Mitford, T.B., "Some new inscriptions from early Christian Cyprus", Byzantion 20 (1950), 170.
