"Receive Her In The Lord:" The Story of Thecla the Apostle

While Thecla’s name does not appear in the canon of Sacred Scripture, a record of her life can be found in an second-century apocryphal text commonly known as the “Acts of Thecla” or the “Acts of Paul and Thecla,” which chronicles the events of her life from young adulthood until death. The historical validity of this document has been questioned over time, but whether the story of Thecla is fictional or not does not negate the impact and the early popularity of a story which places emphasis on the personal experience of a young woman who embraces her own autonomy as a follower of Christ, a woman who teaches, baptizes herself, and is even referred to as an “apostle.” (Acts)

The recorded story of Thecla begins when she is around sixteen or seventeen years old, and Paul began preaching in her homeland of Iconium. At the time, Thecla was betrothed to a man named Thamyris, who urged her not to listen to the teachings of Paul, who spoke of the virtue of celibacy and prayer. However, Thecla “rejoiced” at the teachings of Christ, and decided to break off her engagement to follow Paul. After breaking into the jail where Paul is imprisoned to hear the word of God, she was sentenced to death for the first of several times throughout her life. When she was tied to the stake to burn, however, the ground began to shake and a miraculous downpour saved Thecla from the flames. 

After escaping from the men who sought to kill her, Thecla followed Paul to Antioch, where she was assaulted by a man who hoped to marry her. She was arrested for physically defending herself, and sentenced to fight in an arena with wild animals. While waiting for her execution, Thecla was taken in by a woman named Tryphaena, who had recently lost her own daughter and cared for her as her own. 

When the time came for Thecla to go into the arena, filled with lions and bears and a pool full of deadly seals, she was circled by a lioness, who protected her from the other animals who wished to kill her. When at last the lioness was killed, by a lion belonging to Thecla’s assaulter, Thecla herself jumped into the pool full of seals, proclaiming “In the name of Jesus Christ I am baptized on my last day!” Upon this unprecedented declaration of self-baptism, the seals which would have killed her all died and she was surrounded by a cloud of fire, so that she could not be seen. 

When her oppressors finally determined that Thecla could not be killed, she once again joined Paul in his travels to spread the Gospel, and was commissioned by Paul as both a teacher and an apostle. Among the places Thecla traveled was her own hometown of Iconium, where she converted many people, including her own mother. 

After this, Thecla retreated to a cave and lived as an ascetic for a remarkable seventy-two more years, where she continued to teach and advise those who came to her for her renowned wisdom. (Acts)

While the “Acts of Thecla” has been questioned and criticized for centuries due to its apparently contradictory information (including the teachings of Paul on celibacy and the role of women, which are far more liberal in this text than in his Epistles,) the story remains that of a woman who pursued her calling with courage and conviction, despite the countless obstacles which stood in her way as a young woman living in a society in which she was viewed as an inferior member. (Questions)

A common criticism of this text, as well as the story of Thecla as a whole, is that virginity and celibacy are glorified to the point of the condemnation of marriage, which contradicts biblical teaching. (Questions) However, it could be argued that Thecla’s fascination with a celibate lifestyle is a commentary not on the biblical institution of marriage, but on the persistent social structures and environmental factors which denied the rights of married women in the first century. Perhaps in a celibate and ascetic Christian lifestyle, Thecla saw a liberation which was not only spiritual, but deeply and profoundly personal.