Sabrina C.

Higgins

St. Thecla and the Art of Her Pilgrims:

Towards an Autonomous Feminine
Aesthetic Praxis

Abstract

This article examines the role of women in the promulgation of the Cult of Thecla in late-antique Egypt,
particularly through their use and adaptation of her iconography. Through a contextualization of the material
remains, this study addresses the ways in which devotion to Thecla was expressed in the visual culture associated
with her cult, both within the constructs of sanctioned religious practice and individual veneration. In doing so,
we highlight the various avenues of devotion to Thecla and the iconography that emerges from these diverging
frameworks. More specifically, we examine the ways in which private female practices of devotion transgress
official forms of iconography, relying on a comparative analysis of the images proliferated at pilgrimage sites as-
sociated with her cult (i.e. tokens), which stand in contrast to those that appear in the context of private female
devotion (i.e. funerary stelae/tombs). While common iconographic themes appear across devotional contexts,
such an approach necessitates a gendered analysis of this material, underscoring the prevalence of attendant male
saints in the material culture associated with pilgrimage shrines—especially St. Menas—and the independent
manifestations of Thecla within a milieu of private female veneration. This article ultimately argues, therefore,
for an autonomous feminine aesthetic praxis amongst female devotees, providing an artistic avenue for imitation
and subsequent empowerment of women in late-antique Egypt.

Now remain with the blessed Thecla. Stop being disturbed by Theocleia. Despise the judge. Take courage when you
scatter the enemy. Let the force of the fire not frighten you… Take courage, O virgin. Let the force of Alexander not
subdue you. Tear his clothes to pieces. Put him to shame and be in good spirits. Despise his lions; view askance the bulls.
Trample Satan and his instruments. Show forth the power of Christ in this visible world. Go to Tryphaena and the
queen Tryphosa where all saints are truly in delight with angels. There you will be enrolled with the assemblies forever
and ever world without end Amen.1

Imodel
n his treatise, On Virginity, Athanasius, the fourth-century Bishop of Alexandria, frames Thecla as the ideal
of female piety. On two occasions, Athanasius quotes directly from the Acts of Paul and Thecla (ATh),
2

1 Athanasius, DE virginitate: 211–220 (translation: Casey, 1935: 1034).

2 For a recent discussion on the authenticity of De virginitate and its attribution to Athanasius, see Brakke, 1994:
27–30.

Journal of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies 11 — 2019

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a late second-century text which recounts the story of Thecla’s encounter with the Apostle Paul, her near
martyrdom (twice), self-baptism, Paul’s blessing to teach, and her eventual “sleep” in Seleucia. He concludes
his text, however, with a moral exhortation, or paraenesis, of the saint, encouraging his audience to recall and
reenact Thecla’s courageous actions within their own asceticism.3 His command to “remain with the blessed
Thecla,” speaks directly to the community with which this treatise engages—that is, a loose-knit community of
Alexandrian virgins who partake in a form of domestic asceticism centered around Thecla, their patron saint—
advocating for their imitation, or mimesis, of the explicit form of female piety extoled in his text.4

What permeates this text, and its interaction with the ATh more broadly, is a tension that both recognizes
Thecla as an exceptional paradigm for women’s asceticism, while also shaping her character to fit the culture
and class structures within which her veneration manifests—that is, mid-fourth century Alexandria. In par-
ticular, there is a concerted effort here by Athanasius to bring Thecla under the umbrella of his Orthodox
teachings, deploying her as a means to consolidate his support amongst Alexandria’s female ascetic community,
especially at a time when competing ascetic sects, such as Manichaeism, are also vying for the support of the
same women who hold Thecla to heart.5 Thus, the cult of Thecla in Egypt both shapes and is shaped by the
ecclesiastical disputes of the fourth century and the power relations that exist between the Bishop of Alexandria
and the community of virgins with whom he is in dialogue.

Such a reading of the text is made possible by the work of Steven Davis, who has rightly argued that Atha-
nasius did not introduce Thecla to these ascetic women as a model of female piety, but that he was responding
to a community who had already actively embraced the saint.6 His exaltation of Thecla, however, must also be
read in relation to the power dynamics imbued within this text. Particularly, the gendered and political attempt
by Athanasius to take control and reframe the Thecla narrative to suit his version of Orthodoxy. That is not
to say, however, that the women addressed in this narrative are passive recipients of the androcentric theology
espoused by the Church; rather, it is quite the opposite. Athanasius’ text presupposes and recognizes a domain
of female agency and seeks to appropriate it by using the existing exegetical paradigms of this female ascetic
community in order to appeal to their theological interests. Such a view challenges the contemporary assump-
tions of passive female subordination or marginalization within the patriarchal structures of the early Christian
Church;7 instead, advocating that these actions should be viewed as an instance of female praxis amongst those
women devoted to St. Thecla.

THE CULT OF THECLA AND FEMALE AGENCY

In order to situate this notion of a proto-feminist praxis amongst female adherents of the cult of Thecla in
late-antique Egypt, we must first turn to a theoretical discussion of culture and agency and the ways in which
ancient cultural norms and power relations shaped and limited the lives and actions of Christian women—that

3 On paraenesis, see Aune, 1987: 191; Malherbe, 1986: 124–25.

4 See Davis, 2001: 86–93 for a summary of the texts and the explicit discussion of Thecla in relation to Athana-
sius’ instructions and warnings for the female ascetic community in Alexandria.
5 Davis, 2001: 99.
6 Davis, 2001: 89.
7 This is particularly argued by feminist scholars in relation to 1 Timothy. See, for example, Bassler, 1984: 23–
41; Schüssler Fiorenza, 1988: 290–91 and 310–15; Macdonald, 1999: 245–49; and Bassler, 2003: 122–46.

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is, how can we assert the existence of female religious and social agency within a culture that we assume had
a rigid system of patriarchal ideals. In recognizing the opportunities for praxis in the ancient world, we must
first delineate the avenues through which such actions occurred. For the period in question, we are left with
a rich body of material and textual evidence from which we might extrapolate female agency. Susan Hylen’s
notion of “Historically Situated Agency” suits such an endeavor well, as it outlines the ways in which agency is
visible in the historical record. She finds agency in “women’s legal status, ownership of property and the ability
to make decisions about it; social and political influence; communication and movement outside of the home;
and women’s decisions about sex and child bearing.”8

Opportunities for female agency, however, must also be contextualized within historical structures of power,
which Pierre Bourdieu argues are both symbolically and culturally fashioned, and continuously re-legitimized
through habitus; the socially enforced norms that steer behavior and thought.9 Habitus represents the deeply
embedded behaviors, habits, and dispositions—essentially, the “rules” of a cultural group, which are shaped by
both past events and structures, as well as current practices. Thus, a culture represents a collectivity of individ-
uals who share a set of norms (or “rules”) which are consistently reinforced by the active participation in that
group.10 These dispositions, however, are not fixed or permanent; in fact, they are, as Hylen notes, “consistently
negotiated and often in conflict.”11

By framing the discussion in this way, we note the space that exists within these structures for female
agency, particularly the capacity for women to interact within a cultural set of norms and expectations, what
Ann Swindler terms their “cultural repertoire.”12 Such a notion recognizes that an individual has a number of
cultural resources available to them—a cultural “tool kit,” if you will—that actors can employ as they “move
among situations, finding terms in which to orient action within each situation.”13 Thus, agency need not
represent action taken against the pervasive cultural norms of Late Antiquity—that is, resistance against the
male-dominated ecclesiastical structures—it is also found, according to Saba Mahmood, “in the multiple ways
in which one inhabits norms.”14 Moreover, patriarchal systems of power are not monolithic, and particular
elements of early Christianity enabled and encouraged female participation, thus allowing women to assume
various forms of power within them—notably as widows, virgins and wealthy patrons.15 We should envision
this period, therefore, as one in which a certain “gender hegemony”—to borrow the term from Sherry Ort-
ner—pervades the interactions between women and the Church; meaning that male dominance is ubiquitous
but not absolute, and, theoretically, there are opportunities for women to exercise power in various ways.16

8 Hylen, 2015: 13.

9 Bourdieu, 1977: 72.
10 Bourdieu, 1977: 15.
11 Hylen, 2015: 9. See also, De Certeau, 1984: xi, off of whose work she is building.
12 Swindler, 2001: 24.
13 Swindler, 2001: 30.
14 Mahmood, 2005: 31.
15 Hylen, 2015: 12–15. For a discussion of the roles played by women in Roman and late-antique Egypt, see
generally, Osiek, 1983; Castelli, 1986; Mcginn, 2008; Crook, 2009; Westfall, 2016: 260–77.
16 Ortner, 1996: 145–47. Cf. Meyers, 2014: 8–27.

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Within this particular framework, it is not difficult to envision the ways in which “Historically Situated
Aency” might manifest amongst communities of early Christian women. Texts, legal documents, and inscrip-
tions have certainly provided a wealth of material from which we find abundant evidence of female praxis in
late-antique Egypt, and recent scholarship has advanced this field significantly, particularly in its application
to the cult of Thecla.17 By necessity, however, these discussions have largely taken a textual approach to agency,
establishing the historical and structural contexts within which dialogues of agency are made possible—such
as our reading of female praxis within Athanasius’ treatise, On Virginity. While such textual explorations have
elucidated the agentic capacities of female Thecla devotees, they have largely ignored the ways in which the
material culture associated with her cult also offers avenues for female praxis.18

This study, therefore, places the visual culture associated with the cult of Thecla at the centre of its discus-
sion, and explores the various political and social structures that influence the development and promulgation
of the saint’s iconography. An examination of the material remains, however, does not preclude a discussion
of the textual and historical evidence, as a holistic approach to the study of female agency necessitates that all
materials be examined under the same interpretive gaze.19 Art, moreover, represents a unifying element with
a particular habitus, as it assumes that members of a particular social field are privy to the symbolic structures
that pervade the composition. In the case of Thecla, artistic renditions of the saint bear an exegetical function,
as the visual clues inherent in her imagery recall a textual source with which the viewer is intimately familiar
and through which they engage in a form of cultural memory work.20

GENDER HEGEMONY AND THE MATERIALITY OF CULT

There is an acute tension, however, between how Thecla is represented in literature and the way in which
the associated visual culture manifests. In the ATh, for instance, there is a notable focus on her role as an
itinerant teacher and evangelist, whose behavior and physical appearance disrupt perceived gender norms (i.e.
donning male clothing). In the artistic repertoire, on the other hand, Thecla becomes almost exclusively as-
sociated with her martyrdom trials, the iconography for which is derivative of existing martyrologic imagery
which takes its visual clues from the arena; for example, Daniel and the Lions. Moreover, Thecla’s gender
transgression is entirely omitted from the imagery and she is reoriented to appear as the idealized feminine
subject; visualized, especially on Egyptian ampullae, as a bound, sexualized condemned prisoner.21 While such
a dichotomy presupposes the imposition of a seemingly male-oriented gaze, this study argues that the visual
culture represents a battleground within early Christian power dynamics and is of critical importance for an
analysis of the avenues for female praxis.

In order to make such an argument, however, we must first consider the socio-political milieu within
which the cult of Thecla took root in Egypt, examining the factors that ultimately influenced the competing

17 For recent scholarship concerning female agency in relation to the cult of Thecla, see Davis, 2001; Castelli,
2004; Vander Stichele /Penner, 2009; Hylen, 2015.
18 See Castelli, 2004: 134–171, for a discussion of the ways in which agency is found in the commissioning and
use of visual materials by women, particularly in relation to the cult of Thecla.
19 Jensen, 2000.
20 Castelli, 2004: 160.
21 Castelli, 2004: 162–165.

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representations of the saint outlined above. To begin, the fourth century marked the first departure of female
ascetics from Alexandria to the monastic communities west of the city, bringing with them the distinct forms
of female piety that previously guided their ascetic practices.22 The movement of these women is perhaps best
encompassed by the Life and Activity of the Holy and Blessed Teacher Syncletica, a mid-fifth century text recount-
ing the life of a female Alexandrian virgin, whose experience elucidates the ways in which some female monks
sought to emulate Thecla in their social practices; more specifically, their radical break with domestic patterns
of ascetic life and the disruption of family structures in the pursuit of a more remote desert asceticism.23 The
mimesis of Thecla by these virgins may have functioned—as noted by Davis—“as a subversive, social stimulus
in the lives of fifth-century Alexandrian virgins,”24 while also playing an important role in the promulgation
of her cult, the development of female monastic pilgrimage, and ultimately the creation of a visual culture for
the saint.

Taking their cues from the stories of women like Syncletica, pilgrimage travel became a vehicle for the so-
cial practice of Thecla devotion from the fifth to seventh centuries, as Thecla’s own wanderings—as chronicled
in the ATh—gave license to itinerant virgins to head into the desert in emulation of their patron saint.25 The
emerging opportunities for female ascetic travel eventually paved the way for the dissemination of the cult of
Thecla, particularly into the Mareotis district of Egypt—that is, the region just west of Alexandria. While this
region is perhaps most famous for its pilgrimage complex to St. Menas (Abu Mina), there was also likely a
contemporary, and competing, martyr shrine to Thecla elsewhere in the Mareotis, to which there is a reference
in The Miracles of Saint Menas.26 Although the archaeological remains for such a shrine have yet to be uncov-
ered, Thecla does appear with some frequency in the assemblage of pilgrim flasks (ampullae) produced at the
cult centre of St. Menas, suggesting, at least from an iconographic perspective, a cultic cooperation between
the shrines.

A closer examination of the ampullae, however, reveals an underlying competition for local cultic primacy
and power, and an attempt to establish a gendered model for female piety, at least in the Mareotis. There are

22 Davis, 2001: 106.

23 (Pseudo)-Athanasius, Vita Syncleticae (translation: Castelli,1990). On the problematic attribution of this
text to Athanasius, see Brakke, 1994, 39. See also, Regnault, 1972: x–xiv, for the attribution of this text to the
mid-fifth century.
24 Davis, 2001: 111.
25 References to itinerant virgins are found in numerous contemporary texts, including the Miracles of Saint
Menas 22. 2. 27–31 (translation: Drescher, 1946: 116); Life and Miracles of Saint Thekla 34 (translation: Dagron,
1978: 19–21); Egeria, Itinerarium (see esp. 22–23 for her visit to Thecla’s shrine in Seleucia [translation: Franche-
schini and Weber, 1958]); and the Life of Eugenia 5 (translation: Lewis, 1990: fol. 25a). There are also several at-
tempts by ecclesiastical and monastic leaders to restrain the movements of women, suggesting that they were familiar
with a specific subset of female ascetics engaging in this type of activity, on which see, for example, Athanasius,
Epistula ad uirgines 1.13, 15; 78. 13–16; 79. 17–19 (translation: Lefort, 1955); and Evagrius Ponticus, Sententiae
ad virginem 13 (Translation: Gressmann, 1913: 147).
26 This pilgrimage complex of Abu Mina is located 46 km west of Alexandria on a major pilgrimage route along
the Mediterranean. A “martyr shrine of St. Thecla” is mentioned in the Miracles of Saint Menas 22. 2. 27–31 (transla-
tion: Drescher, 1946: 116). For a discussion of the possible shrine to St. Thecla in the Mareotis district, see Davis,
2001: 126–133.

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sixteen ampullae on which Thecla is paired with St. Menas, all of which follow a formulaic pattern.27 On the
front of the flasks, St. Menas always appears in low relief. He is identified by his frontal stance in an orant
position, with a mass of curly hair (sometimes haloed) and flanked by two camels who bow their heads in def-
erence to the saint (fig. 1). On the reverse, however, we find Thecla ad bestias—that is, amongst the beasts (fig.
2). In these ampullae, Thecla’s sexualized body dominates the scene; she is stripped naked from the waist up,
each depiction highlighting the curves of her bare breasts, her long hair flowing down to her shoulders, while
the drapery over the lower half of her body clings tightly to her legs, as if wet.

In amplifying her femininity on the ampullae, the transgressive gender elements of her story give way to
a representation of the idealized female ascetic, who is visually reoriented towards a more heteronormative
framework—artistically, she is stripped of her transvestite qualities and deliberately paired with a male saint.28
Contemporary literature, however, such as the Life of Eugenia, suggests that the rejection of gender conventions
played a critical role in the lives of many female ascetics for whom Thecla served as a mimetic example.29 More-
over, in addition to Thecla’s overemphasized femininity on the ampullae, the saint exclusively appears as a pris-
oner—her hands bound behind her back—flanked by two bulls who are joined by a lioness and a bear beneath
her feet.30 The iconography alludes to her second martyrdom trial in Antioch, although critical elements of the
image notably diverge from the events recounted in the ATh, specifically the description of Thecla, who stand-
ing amongst the beasts, “stood with her hands outstretched and prayed.”31 Thus, in the struggle for control
over Thecla and the attempt to curb elements of female agency, we bear witness to an acute tension between
the various literary and artistic traditions, each extolling competing and contradictory models of female piety.

While the contrasting representations of the two saints on these ampullae may represent an attempt by the
cult of Menas to subsume Thecla devotion under its own auspices, or perhaps mark a process of isomorphism
amongst these competing local shrines, this paper also wants to suggest that the iconographic choices inherent
in these flasks represent an attempt within the official religious constructs of Egyptian Christianity to regulate
and control the experience of female ascetic pilgrimage and to create a visual framework that privileges the
masculine saint over that of the feminine.32 The visual reinforcement of “gender hegemony” in this case sug-
gests a need to assert the primacy of St. Menas in the Mareotis, while also recognizing that female pilgrims
maintained a particular affinity for Thecla. Female agency, in this case, is illustrated in the subsuming of Thecla
as a model of women’s piety within the cult of Menas and in the power struggle that plays out in the icono-

27 For a complete list of the published ampullae with references, see Davis, 2001: 195–200.
28 In the ATh, Thecla’s rejection of gender conventions is best illustrated by her willingness to cut off her hair. Acts
of Paul and Thecla 25 (text: Lipsius and Bonnet, 1891: 252–253) and the donning of male clothing (Acts of Paul
and Thecla 40 (Text: Lipsius and Bonnet, 1891: 266).
29 PL 73.605–624; PG 116. 609–652. An English translation of the Armenian text is available in Conybeare,
1894: 147–189, and a translation of the Syriac text is found in Lewis, 1900. For a discussion of female monastic
transvestites, see Anson, 1974; Patlagean, 1976; and Talbot, 1996: 1–64.
30 There is one seventh-century ampulla, however, in which Thecla appears more modestly dressed and is only
flanked by two beasts: a lion and bear(?). See, Lefebvre, 1907: 136, no. 692; Kaufmann, 1910: 141; Weitzmann,
1979: 576–578, no. 516; Nauerth and Warns, 1981: 25–30, and Abb. 10f.
31 Acts of Paul and Thecla 28 (Text: Lipsius and Bonnet, 1891: 255–256). Thecla’s waist and feet are, in fact,
bound in her encounter with the bulls, but there is no reference in the ATh to the binding of her hands.
32 For a discussion of cultic competition and the possibility of isomorphism, see Davis 2001: 133–136.

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graphic battleground of officially sanctioned pilgrim tokens, in which Thecla may serve as a gendered mimetic
model for women, but only in apposition to her relationship with a male saint. In fact, we have yet to uncover
an Egyptian ampulla on which Thecla appears without a male counterpart.33

There is greater room for iconographic diversity and female agency, however, when we look beyond the
visual culture produced at official pilgrimage shrines, at which the “cultural repertoire” of women was limited
by the complex gender norms entrenched in the androcentric concerns of the cult of St. Menas, which sought
to establish a cultic hierarchy and regulate the experience of female pilgrims. Despite the avenues for female
agency that persisted under such conditions, we can find more direct evidence of female praxis within the
milieu of private female veneration—that is devotion to Thecla—which is disassociated from monastic and
ecclesiastical structures, such as funerary art. While common iconographic themes appear across devotional
contexts (i.e. her martyrdom trials), the commissioning of visual materials by women themselves sheds light
on the ways in which a female habitus pervades Thecla’s iconography and offers new artistic opportunities for
imitation and our subsequent assertion of female agency in late-antique Egypt.

Perhaps the most prolific evidence for an autonomous feminine aesthetic praxis comes from the Kharga
Oasis, which in the mid-fourth century became a place of exile for those who had survived the persecutions
of the pro-Arian Bishop, George of Cappadocia, including the Alexandrian virgins loyal to Athanasius—the
same community of virgins, who actively venerated Thecla as their patron saint—perhaps acting as the cata-
lyst for the outward dissemination of her cult into the deepest reaches of the Egyptian desert.34 Here, Thecla
is depicted in the iconographic program of at least three funerary chapels in the El-Bagawat necropolis,35 the
most prominent of which is located in the mid-fourth century Chapel of Exodus, which is likely one of the
earliest Christian funerary chapels at the site.36 Its name stems from the prominent depiction of Moses and the
Israelites fleeing a phalanx of Egyptian soldiers, which circumscribes the lower perimeter of the chapel’s dome.
The rest of the dome painting is comprised of Old Testament scenes, including Adam and Eve, Daniel in the
Lion’s den, and Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac. On the eastern portion of the dome, however, we find
Thecla, who appears to be the only named Christian figure in the chapel (fig. 3).37

33 Thecla is also occasionally paired with Daniel and St. Paul within the extant Egyptian material culture. Her
pairing with Daniel, in particular, underscores the ways in which she becomes a gendered prototype for women,
serving as a visual counterpart, if not quotation, of Daniel’s own martyrological trials. When paired, as on the
fourth-century wooden comb from Panopolis (Forrer, 1893: 15–16, pl. 12, fig. 2; and Nauerth and Warns,
1981: 51–53, fig. 19), the two figures share an iconographical lineage derivative of visual models from the arena,
which focuses entirely on their mutual encounters with lions. At the same time, the repetition of the martyrologic
iconography reinforces an acceptable archetype for female veneration, while the overemphasis on her feminine
qualities suppresses the gender-bending characteristics that permeate the textual narratives associated with her cult.
34 Athanasius, Apologia de fuga sua 7.2 (Opitz: 2.73); Badger, 1990: 225–231; Davis, 2002: 103–106.
35 Images of Theca are found in the Chapel of Exodus, the Chapel of Peace and Chapel no. 25. See generally
Fakhry, 1951 for a discussion of these chapels and their iconographic programs.
36 Fakhry, 1951: 2, 9. See also, Bock, 1901: 16 ff.; and Kaufmann, 1902: 13 ff., for a discussion of the archi-
tectural relationship of the Chapel of Exodus to the other chapels in its vicinity.
37 Davis, 2001: 154–155. There is an unnamed shepherd and his flock immediately to the right of Thecla, which
may represent Christ. If this is the case, this only strengthens Thecla’s important role in the dome, given her privilege
of place.

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The Thecla scene commemorates her martyrdom trial by fire, in which she is depicted as an orans with her
head lifted towards the sky, as flames graze her legs and torso (fig. 4).38 Above her head, however, is a nebulous
dark-grey cloud, from which vertical lines stream downwards, as if to satiate the fire that threatens to engulf
her. Below the image of Thecla is an eschatological scene in which seven virgins (inscription reads: “parthenoi”)
process in a line to the left, each carrying a torch in one hand and a censor in the other. The women appear
to walk on a thin, painted line that originates at the door of a small square structure on the right (perhaps
representing the funerary chapel itself ) to a large temple-like structure on the left. Beneath the virgins, more-
over, we encounter two figures leading camels in the opposite direction, that is, towards the square structure.
Finally, immediately to the left of the square structure is a second orans beneath a large tree with her head raised
upwards, mimicking the posture of St. Thecla.

The latter orans may represent the deceased woman buried beneath the Chapel of Exodus, who appears to
have a particular affinity to Thecla, especially given her proximity to the saint and the similarity of their pos-
ture, emphasizing their mimetic link.39 The presence of the virgins and the depiction of the camels (which ap-
pear to arrive into the Oasis) allude to her status as a potential Alexandrian exile, whose devotion to Thecla was
expressed in her deliberate incorporation into the iconography of the funerary chapel.40 Such a composition,
moreover, provides a concrete example of the ways in which female agency is expressed in the iconographic
record, as the painting was likely commissioned by the deceased to represent her status as an ascetic Thecla
devotee. In addition, the scene also highlights the ways in which private female devotion to Thecla transgresses
the official forms of iconography—particularly, the rejection of Thecla as a bound prisoner and her appearance
without a male counterpart.

Such mimetic representations of Thecla are not limited, however, to the Kharga Oasis. The necropolis at
Athribis also bears a similar, albeit rudimentary, wall painting in which Thecla is depicted as an orans between

38 Acts of Paul and Thecla 12 (Text: Lipsius and Bonnet, 1891: 244). Depictions of Thecla amongst the flames
are rare within her iconographic corpus, although Davis, 2001: 155, identifies three possible additional representa-
tions of this imagery, including two fourth-century gold glass medallions from Cologne, and a fifth-century Coptic
textile from Akhmim. The images identified by Davis, however, contravene the typical rendering of Thecla—in
that she is depicted naked—and it is unclear whether these individuals are, in fact, meant to represent Thecla. Cf.
Martin, 2006, who argues that the image in the Chapel of Exodus is the only known representation of this Thecla
in the fire.
39 Thérel, 1969: 260–70. The absence of an identifying inscription and the mimetic aspect of the painting lend
credibility to the notion of this second orans as the deceased, as the other biblical figures are all identified with labels.
For a discussion of the history of scholarship regarding the interpretation of this figure, see Davis, 2001: 159–164
(esp. n. 36).
40 Thérel, 1969: 265, was the first to identify these women as the Alexandrian virgins in exile and to suggest that
this funerary chapel was built for an individual from this community. Davis, 2001: 166–168, interprets these images
as part of a larger iconographical narrative, arranged counter-clockwise, enumerating the arrival of the virgins into
the oasis, the deceased as orans, and the celestial choir of virgins leading the deceased towards heavenly Jerusalem.
Various other interpretations have been offered for the role of the Virgins in this scene, but none adopt a holistic ap-
proach to the iconography and reconcile the proximity of the virgins to the orans and the camels. Cf. Stern, 1960:
104–106; and Schwartz, 1962: 3–5.

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Sabrina C. Higgins

two crude lions, the left of which licks her feet; a visual reference to ATh 28 (fig. 5).41 Just to the right of this
image stands a smaller female figure—likely the deceased—who dons a similar garment and mirrors Thecla’s
pose with her hands outstretched. The proximity of the smaller figure to the saint, as well as her derivative
gesture as an orans, suggests a hierarchy of place within the image, in which the deceased expresses her devotion
to Thecla by establishing a visual association between herself and her patron saint. Therefore, the deliberate
mimesis embodied within this painting represents an act of female agency, in which the deceased and her link
to the feminine saint is consciously prioritized within the decorative scheme of the tomb.

Perhaps the best example of a distinct feminine aesthetic praxis, however, stems from an Egyptian grave
stele in the Coptic Museum in Cairo.42 The stele preserves a roughly hewn relief of a female orans, who wears
only a short apron, leaving her torso and breasts exposed (fig. 6). A Greek inscription identifies her as a name-
sake of Thecla, reading “Lord, give rest to the soul of your servant Thecla.”43 What is more, the artist also seems
to have attempted to etch two beasts on either side of the woman. Thus, instead of juxtaposing Thecla and the
deceased, as seen in the previous examples, the artist appears to have conflated the two women, rendering the
deceased—however crudely—as Thecla ad bestias. The overt imitation of Thecla in this instance epitomizes the
way in which a female devotee might exhibit agency within her social milieu—in this case, her death—choos-
ing Thecla as a vehicle for her own empowerment by quite literally likening herself to the female saint.

DISCUSSION: TOWARDS A FEMININE AESTHETIC PRAXIS

While these examples represent merely a sample of the material culture associated with the cult of Thecla,
they attest to the ways in which a feminine praxis manifested amongst female devotees to the saint in the
iconographic record. Art provided a milieu through which women could find expression within the “gender
hegemony” that pervaded Christian Egypt, laying claim to Thecla’s spiritual power through the mimetic op-
portunities available to them in the visual culture, ultimately serving as a vehicle for female empowerment in
late-antique Egypt. This agency, however, is understood within the pervasive power structures of late-antique
Egypt, in which the cultural repertoire available to women is firmly situated within an androcentric frame-
work, which ultimately impacts the types of iconography accessible to them. For example, there is a critical
tension between the literary and artistic traditions associated with the cult of Thecla. Firstly, the textual evi-
dence provided the saint—and subsequently her ascetic devotees—with a variety of roles for women, many of
which subvert the social norms and constraints of conventionalized gender, while the artistic tradition tends to
emphasize her martyrologic status and attempts to reposition her with the recognized framework of the ideal-
ized feminine subject; recall that all of the images discussed reference her martyr trials.44

41 De Bock, 1901: pl. 29, fig. 2; De Grüneisen, 1922: pl. 41, fig. 2; Wessel, 1966: i. 1115; and Warns, 1986:
84; Davis, 2001: 164. Cf. De Grüneisen, 1922: 68; and Schmitz, 1930: 19, who suggest that this figure represents
Daniel.
42 Crum, 1902: 142, and pl. 52, no. 8693; DACL XII.2: 2313, 2318, fig. 9098; Nauerth and Warns, 1981:
48–50; and Davis, 2001: 193–194.
43 For a discussion of the popularity of the name Thecla in Egypt, see the onomastic evidence compiled by Davis,
2001: 201–208.
44 Castelli, 2004: 162. N.B. There are images of Thecla that illustrate other aspects of her life, such as Thecla
seated across from Paul in the Chapel of Peace at El-Bagawat, but the visualization of her martyr trials represents the
overwhelming majority of images associated with the saint.

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 St. Thecla and the Art of Her Pilgrims

Yet, within these constructs and the collective memory embodied within this particular visual culture, we
can still identify avenues for the expression of female agency amongst Thecla’s devotees. Her image and its use
within a funerary context—at least within the constraints of this study—highlight the deliberate choice of
women to parade their spiritual connection to the saint, ultimately employing (or even subsuming) her like-
ness to express their personal devotion. Thus, agency is found in the commissioning and use of visual materials
by women to express their personal piety. Such claims become increasingly evident, moreover, when we refer
back to the ways in which Thecla was visualized on the Menas ampullae, which were conceived and produced
with an official pilgrimage context and underscore the objectification of the feminine in relation to the male
subject. The iconographic choices that pervade these ampullae reflect a broader systemic condition in which
the man’s body is ascribed meaning on its own, disassociated from that of the woman, whereas the woman’s
body is bereft of meaning in the absence of a male subject. St. Menas’ presence is conceived without that of St.
Thecla, but her presence is not conceived without reference to his; to quote de Beauvoir, “He is the Subject; he
is the Absolute. She is the Other.”45

When comparing the iconographic choices that permeate the funerary contexts, however, we encounter
a parallel world of imagery for Thecla, in which the more subversive elements of her story are re-introduced
into her visual repertoire. In these instances, we encounter a decoupling of the male and female—that is, she is
no longer exclusively paired with St. Menas—and, artistically, Thecla is quite literally freed from the shackles
imposed upon her in official pilgrimage contexts, where she was conceived as a bound and sexualized prisoner.
Instead, she appears as a woman actively facing her martyrdom trials with her arms outstretched in prayer, re-
inforcing and reclaiming the agency with which she was imbued in the ATh. Most importantly, however, there
is a deliberate artistic choice to present Thecla, and the deceased women, as the Subject of the image, whereby
her devotees opt not to conceive themselves as the Other, but to actively assert an autonomous aesthetic free-
dom grounded in the sovereign consciousness of their stylistic choices.46

45 De Beauvoir, 1949: 5–6.

46 De Beauvoir, 1949: 17.

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Sabrina C. Higgins

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Sa brin a C . Higgin s
Assistant Professor
Simon Fraser University

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Sabrina C. Higgins

Figure 1. Ampulla depicting St. Menas (obverse); Figure 2. Ampulla depicting St. Thecla (reverse);
British Museum, London, EA 69839 British Museum, London, EA 69839
(© Trustees of the British Museum) (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Figure 3. Dome Painting in Eastern Section of the

Chapel of Exodus, El Bagawat Necropolis, Kharga
Oasis (Nauerth and Warns, 1981: fig. 5;
courtesy of O. Harrassowitz)

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 St. Thecla and the Art of Her Pilgrims

Figure 4. Artist’s rendition of St. Thecla in the fire and the adjacent scenes, Chapel of
Exodus, El Bagawat Necropolis, Kharga Oasis, eastern arch (sketch by Heginbottom,
in Nauerth and Warns, 1981: fig. 6; courtesy of O. Harrassowitz). Top, Thecla in the
fire; middle, procession of virgins towards a temple; bottom, two figures lead camels in
opposite direction; an unnamed orans.

Figure 6. Grave stele of a woman

Figure 5. St. Thecla between two lions (left) and a smaller orans named Thecla, as orans, Coptic
representing the deceased (right), wall painting from necropolis near Museum, Cairo, no 8693 (Nauerth
ancient Athribis. (De Bock, 1901: pl. 29, fig. 2; repr. Grüneisen, and Warns, 1981: fig. 18; courtesy
1922: pl. 41). of O. Harrassowitz).

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