Book contents
- Thecla and Medieval Sainthood
- Thecla and Medieval Sainthood
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I An Act to Follow
- Chapter 1 A Cainite Invocation of Thecla?
- Chapter 2 Saint Thecla in Geʿez Hagiographical Literature
- Chapter 3 Versified Martyrs
- Chapter 4 The Reception of the Acts of Thecla in Armenia
- Chapter 5 Thecla beyond Thecla
- Chapter 6 Shifting the Poetics of Gender Ambiguity
- Part II An Act to Surpass
- Afterword
- Appendix Summaries of Texts
- Index
- References
Chapter 2 - Saint Thecla in Geʿez Hagiographical Literature
From Confessor to Martyr
from Part I - An Act to Follow
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2022
- Thecla and Medieval Sainthood
- Thecla and Medieval Sainthood
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I An Act to Follow
- Chapter 1 A Cainite Invocation of Thecla?
- Chapter 2 Saint Thecla in Geʿez Hagiographical Literature
- Chapter 3 Versified Martyrs
- Chapter 4 The Reception of the Acts of Thecla in Armenia
- Chapter 5 Thecla beyond Thecla
- Chapter 6 Shifting the Poetics of Gender Ambiguity
- Part II An Act to Surpass
- Afterword
- Appendix Summaries of Texts
- Index
- References
Summary
Though not as famous as in Coptic traditions, Saint Thecla is still an important figure in Ethiopic hagiography. In most Ethiopic texts, she is known under the honorific title of “Thecla the Apostolic” (Ṭeqalā ḥawāryāwit). Ethiopians venerate her amongst the major saintly Christian figures as her Life is told and commemorated in the Synaxarium, the official Ethiopic book of saints. Moreover, a whole book, entitled the Book of Thecla (Masḥafa Ṭeqalā), is devoted to her. An abridged version of The Acts of Paul and Thecla, it tells the story of Thecla’s meeting with Paul, her conversion, her two trials, and the final healing of the governor who condemned her. This latter text is a noteworthy witness to the veneration and cult of Thecla in the Ethiopic realm. Thecla is also explicitly alluded to in other hagiographical texts, like the Epistle of Pelagia (BHO 890) and the Martyrdom of Abouqir, John, the Three Virgins, and Their Mother (Synaxarium, 6th of Yakkatit). Other Ethiopic Acts of saints also seem to refer implicitly to Thecla as a model for martyrs, especially female martyrs, such as the unedited martyrdom of her namesake, Thecla, and her four companions (BHO 1157 for the Syriac version).
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- Thecla and Medieval Sainthood<I>The Acts of Paul and Thecla</I> in Eastern and Western Hagiography, pp. 61 - 84Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022