KATE COOPER

A saint in exile: the early medieval Theda

at Rome and Meriamlik
1

And Theda arose and said to Paul: I am going to Iconium.

But Paul said, Go and teach the word ofGod! ....And when she
had borne this witness she went away to Seleucia; and after
enlightening many with the word of God she slept with a noble
sleep. 2

Thus ends the most evocative of the apostolic romances of the early
Christian period, the second-century Acts of Paul and Thecla. It is a text
which has excited controversy virtually from the time of its composition,
due to its suggestion that a heroic virgin accompanied Paul of Tarsus
during a segment of his travels around the Mediterranean, preaching
the word of God - with his explicit encouragement - as she went. This
legend conferred on the figure of Theda a notoriety and a magnetism
virtually unique among the heroines of the early church.
In its outline, Thecla's story is not remarkably unlike that of the
other heroines of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, but it stands as the
epitome of the genre in its vivid evocation of Thecla's dedication to
Paul, and the miraculous powers which she discovers as she persists in
witnessing publicly to the faith. The Acts of Paul and Thecla introduce
her as a virgin whom Paul encounters during his stay at the house of
1
Thanks are due to friends and colleagues for encouragement and assistance in the
preparation of this article, among them Joseph Alchermes, Patricia Brown, Peter Brown,
Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, David Frankfurter, Ross Shepard Kraemer, Conrad Leyser,
\lasiliki Limberis and Elizabeth Sears. None are responsible for the errors committed
herein.
2
Acta Pauli et Thedae, pp. 41 and 43 (text in RICHARD ADELBERT LIPSIUS and MAXIMILIAN
BONNET, eds., Acta apostolorum apocrypha, Leipzig, 1891, vol. I, pp. 267 and 269).