Thecla and Medieval Sainthood
The Acts of Paul and Thecla in Eastern and Western Hagiography

Explores Saint Thecla and her story as preeminent models for medieval hagiographers across Eurasia and North Africa.

Ghazzal Dabiri (Edited by), Flavia Ruani (Edited by)

9781316519219, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 May 2022

320 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2.3 cm, 0.6 kg

'[This] book adds further depth and nuance to our understanding of Thecla's popularity and the spread of her legend and cult.' Mark Beumer, Kleio-Historia

Saint Thecla was one of the most prominent figures of early Christianity who provided a model of virginity and a role-model for women in the early Church. She was the object of cult and of pilgrimage and her tale in the Acts of Paul and Thecla made a tremendous impact on later hagiographies of both female and male saints. This volume explores this impact on medieval hagiographical texts composed in Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Greek, Irish, Latin, Persian, and Syriac. It investigates how they evoked and/or invoked Thecla and her tale in constructing the lives and story worlds of their chosen saints and offers detailed original readings of the lives of various heroines and heroes. The book adds further depth and nuance to our understanding of Thecla's popularity and the spread of her legend and cult.

Introduction Ghazzal Dabiri
Part I. An Act to Follow: 1. A Cainite invocation of Thecla? The reception of the Acts of Paul in North Africa as exemplified in Tertullian's de Baptismo Jeremy W. Barrier
2. Saint Thecla in Ge?ez hagiographical literature: From confessor to martyr Damien Labadie
3. Versified martyrs: The reception of Thecla from the Latin West to Medieval Ireland Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh
4. The reception of the Acts of Thecla in Armenia: Thecla as a model of representation for holy women in ancient Armenian literature Valentina Calzolari
5. Thecla beyond Thecla: Secondary characters in Syriac hagiography Flavia Ruani
6. Shifting the poetics of gender ambiguity: The Coptic naturalisation of Thecla Arietta Papaconstantinou
Part II. An Act To Surpass: 7. Thecla, the first cross-dresser? The Acts of Paula and Thecla and the lives of Byzantine transvestite saints Julie Van Pelt
8. From Diotima to Thecla and beyond: Virginal voice in the lives of Helia and Constantina Virginia Burrus
9. Reception and rejection: Thecla and the Acts of Paul and Thecla in the Passion of Eugenia and other Latin texts Klazina Staat
10. A medieval Sufi Thecla? Female civic and spiritual leadership in ?Att?r's “Tale of the Virtuous Woman” and the Life and Passion of Eugenia Ghazzal Dabiri
Afterword: Thecla and the power of an open story Kate Cooper.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]