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The Cult of Saint Thecla

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The Cult of Saint Thecla OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES General Editors Gillian Clark Andrew Louth THE OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES series includes scholarly volumes on the thought and history of the early Christian centuries. Covering a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources, the books are of interest to theologians, ancient historians, and specialists in the classical and Jewish worlds. Titles in the series include: Clement of Alexandria and the Beginnings of Christian Apophaticism Henny Fiskå Hägg (2006) The Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus Antiochene Christology from the Council of Ephesus (431) to the Council of Chalcedon (451) Paul B. Clayton, Jr. (2006) Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica Aaron P. Johnson (2006) Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor Melchisedec Törönen (2007) Contextualizing Cassian Aristocrats, Asceticism, and Reformation in Fifth-Century Gaul Richard J. Goodrich (2007) Ambrosiaster’s Political Theology Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe (2007) Coptic Christology in Practice Incarnation and Divine Participation in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt Stephen Davis (2008) Possidius of Calama A Study of the North African Episcopate in the Age of Augustine Erica T. Hermanowicz (2008) Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church Volker L. Menze (2008) The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor Torstein Theodor Tollefsen (2008) Augustine’s Text of John Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts H. A. G. Houghton (2008) Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity From De Fide to De Trinitate Carl L. Beckwith (2008) The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women’s Piety in Late Antiquity Stephen J. Davis 3 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Stephen J. Davis 2001 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2001 First published in paperback 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organisation. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Davis, Stephen J. The cult of Saint Thecla : a tradition of women’s piety in late antiquity / Stephen J. Davis. p. cm. — (Oxford early Christian studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Thecla, Saint—Cult—Turkey—Silifke Region (çðel çli)—History. 2. Women in Christianity—Turkey—Silifke Region (çðel çli)—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. 3. Thecla, Saint—Cult—Egypt—History. 4. Women in Christianity—Egypt—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title. II. Series. BR1720.T33 D38 2000 270.1′092—dc21 00–040060 ISBN 978–0–19–827019–5 (Hbk.) 978–0–19–954871–2 (Pbk.) 13579108642 Typeset in Imprint by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk PREFACE Thecla, believed to have been a disciple and colleague of the apostle Paul, became perhaps the most celebrated female saint and ‘martyr’ among Christians in late antiquity. She was recognized for her example of chastity, and honoured as an apostle and pro- tomartyr, the first female martyr, of the early church. Thecla’s example was associated with the piety of women—in particular, with issues of women’s empowerment and ministry. Because of the patriarchal social customs of the time, these associations lent an air of controversy and ‘transgressiveness’ to her sanctity. Thecla’s fame can be traced quite early in written records, starting at least in the second century ce with the Acts of Paul and Thecla. This work served as the basis for later biographical legends about Thecla, and for the many references to her in ascetic treatises and miracle stories from late antiquity. Thecla also became a popular subject for Christian artists: her image is painted on walls, stamped on clay flasks and oil lamps, engraved on bronze crosses, wooden combs, and stone reliefs, etched onto golden glass medallions, and even woven into a textile curtain. By the fourth and fifth centuries, devotion to Saint Thecla was widespread in the Mediterranean world; from Gaul (modern France) to Palestine, writers and artists extolled her as an exem- plary virgin and martyr. However, it is not my task here to survey the geographical range of Thecla devotion, or to catalogue all the literary and artistic evidence related to the figure of Thecla. Much of this work has in fact already been done by other scholars.1 Instead, I am more interested in reconstructing the cult 1 Carl Holzhey, Die Thekla-Akten: Ihre Verbreitung und Beurteilung in der Kirche, Veröffentlichungen aus dem kirchengeschichtlichen Seminar München, 2/7 (Munich: J. J. Lentner, 1905); Claudia Nauerth and Rüdiger Warns, Thekla: Ihre Bilder in der frühchristlichen Kunst (Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1981); Claudia Nauerth, ‘Nachlese von Thekla-Darstellungen’, in Studien zur spätan- tiken und frühchristlichen Kunst und Kultur des Orients, ed. G. Koch, Göttinger Orientforschungen, series 2, Studien zur spätantiken und frühchristlichen Kunst, vi (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1982), 14–18, pl. 4–9. vi Preface of Saint Thecla—that is, the complex set of social practices (such as asceticism, pilgrimage, burial), institutions (such as churches, martyr shrines, monasteries), and material artefacts (such as texts, relics, sacred souvenirs) that marked the lives of actual devotees. In this book, I focus my attention specifically on the cult of Saint Thecla in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and Egypt: only in these regions does archaeological, artistic, and literary evidence provide enough context for a ‘thick’ description of communities and practices connected with Thecla devotion. Asia Minor has been the subject of previous study—its well-known shrine of Saint Thecla at Seleucia was the hub of her cult in late antiquity.2 In contrast, the diverse but scattered evidence from Egypt has up till now been largely neglected. I bring this evidence together for the first time in order to reconstruct the Egyptian cult of Saint Thecla. I will argue that in both Egypt and Asia Minor, the cult of Saint Thecla remained closely linked with communities of women among whom Thecla’s example was a source of empow- erment and a cause of controversy. 2 E. Herzfeld and S. Guyer, Meriamlik und Korykos: Zwei christliche Ruinenstätte des Rauhen Kilikiens, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antique, ii (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1930); G. Dagron (ed.), Vie et miracles de Sainte Thècle (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1978). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While writing this book, I have been sustained by a family and by a community of scholars and friends whose support and counsel are difficult to measure. Above all, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wife Jennifer for her love, patience, and willing- ness to share me with ‘that other woman’, Thecla. Jenny, this work is dedicated to you and our children Evanleigh, Harrison, and Rowyn. Among those who have assisted me directly in my research and writing, I especially want to thank Bentley Layton for his critical eye and his cogent advice as I prepared my manu- script for publication. I owe special thanks as well to Maria Georgopoulou, who instilled in me a passion for early Christian and Byzantine art: εχαριστ γι ατ τ πολτιμο δ ρον. I also have had the pleasure of working closely with Rowan Greer and Wayne Meeks; both read large portions of my manuscript and were charitable with their time and suggestions. In addition, other colleagues have provided invaluable help, criticism, and encouragement: among them, Roger Bagnall, Paul-Alain Beaulieu, Betsy Bolman, David Brakke, Elizabeth Clark, Jaime Clark-Soles, Scott Cormode, Andrew Crislip, Stephen Emmel, Georgia Frank, David Frankfurter, Todd Hickey, Theo Joppe, Rebecca Krawiec, Susan Matheson, Timothy Poncé, Stephen Shoemaker, Warren Smith, Donald Spanel, Heinrich von Staden, and Terry Wilfong. In the summer of 1995, Henry Maguire and the staff at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, showed me great hospitality and helped facilitate my research into early Byzantine pilgrimage. Opportunities to lecture at Harvard Uni- versity and at the American Research Center in Egypt allowed me to refine my interpretation of Egyptian wall paintings of Saint Thecla in Chapter 5. I also want to recognize those institutions and persons who have facilitated my research in Egypt: Yale University, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), the Dar Comboni Arabic Study Centre, the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC), the Société d’archéologie copte, the viii Acknowledgements Deutsches Archäologisches Institute in Cairo, Peter and Eleni Grossmann, Josef Engelmann, Monsour Osman and Abd el Aziz at El Bagawat, his Eminence Archbishop Damianos, and the gracious monks at the Monastery of Saint Catherine. Finally, I want to thank Hilary O’Shea, Gillian Clark, Andrew Louth, Georga Godwin, John Callow, and the other editors associated with Oxford University Press for their fine work in preparing my book for publication.
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