Miracles of Saint Thekla, 37
Κατέχει δέ τις λόγος, ὡς καὶ Κυπρίων τις τῶν ἄγαν εὐπατριδῶν καὶ περισήμων, τῶν ὄψεων μὲν στερηθείς, κατὰ δὲ φήμην τοῦ ὕδατος τούτου περαιωθεὶς χρήσασθαί τε τῷ φαρμάκῳ, καὶ πρὸς Κυπρίους αὖθις μετὰ τῶν ὄψεων ἐπανελθεῖν.
'A certain story goes that a most well born and distinguished Cypriot, deprived of his eyesight, crossed over the sea because of the fame of this water [the miraculous healing spring described in
E05718] and made use of its remedy, and returned to Cyprus with his eyesight restored.'
The rest of this very short chapter, addresses a complaint that oratory has not featured in the miracle-stories. [The chapters which follow then involve miracles connected to learned men.]
Text: Dagron 1978. Translation: Johnson 2012.
Evidence ID
E05725Saint Name
Thekla, follower of the Apostle Paul : S00092Saint Name in Source
ΘέκλαType of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miraclesEvidence not before
470Evidence not after
476Activity not after
476Place of Evidence - Region
Asia MinorPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Seleucia ad CalycadnumPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Seleucia ad Calycadnum
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
NicomediaCult activities - Places
Holy spring/well/riverCult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Saint as patron - of a communityCult Activities - Miracles
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilitiesCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Foreigners (including Barbarians)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 19 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.