This book is the first modern collection of studies about the
fascinating figure of Thecla and the development of her cult in East and
West. While her role in the Acts of Paul and Thecla has often
been analysed, and was the subject of an earlier volume in this series,
the historical development of her cult from early Christian to modern
times has received much less attention and is therefore the subject of
this book.




The volume starts with a series of four studies that trace her cult and
its literary manifestations from late Antiquity to Byzantine times. We
hear about visions of Thecla and additional miracles beyond those
already known, and we can follow her cult from Asia Minor, through
Syria, to Turfan in modern Western China, although the autonomy and
uniqueness of Thecla was often suppressed in these new localities. From
the East we move to the West where her figure appears in Latin texts and
a previously unpublished Arabic version of the Acts of Paul and Thecla.
Subsequently, three chapters analyse representations of Thecla in
Turkish Ayatekla (ancient Seleucia), in the grotto of St Paul in Ephesus
and in Coptic iconography. From the East we then move back to the West,
particularly to Spain. Thecla's cult was brought from Asia Minor via
Armenia to Tarragona, where it remains alive today. The last two
chapters look at the historiographical trajectories of the Acts of
Paul and Thecla and the testimonies of the Christian martyrs,
respectively. As has become customary, the volume concludes with an
extensive bibliography and detailed index.