There is a church legend about a woman named Thecla, which means, “glory of God.”1 She was a noblewoman, engaged to be married. One day, she heard the apostle Paul preaching from the window of a neighbor’s house. She was so entranced by what he taught that she stayed in the window for three days and nights. Her fiancée conspired to have Paul thrown in jail, but Thecla went to see him there, still coming alive by the word of Christ. Thecla determined that she wanted to remain unmarried and join Paul as a disciple of Jesus. For refusing to get married, the governor sentenced her to be burned at the stake. As they bound her to the stake, she made the sign of the cross. All at once, a great cloud and a thunderous sound came overheard. Rain and hail from heaven made it impossible to light the flame.2
She went away with Paul, but another man desired her and assaulted her. She defended herself and for this he had her charged with assault. The governor sentenced her to be thrown to the beasts. There she was in the arena and they seated her on the back of a lioness. But the lioness turned to her and licked her feet. The next day she was sent into the arena again. A lioness attacked a bear on her behalf, killing it. Another lion came in and attacked the lioness. Thecla wept as it died. They kept sending animal after animal in after her and she kept surviving. At one point, she saw a large pool of water in the arena and determined that she would baptize herself – just in case this was her end. The pool was filled with ferocious creatures – God sent a flash of fire and all the dangerous creatures perished. The governor sent in a bull and she survived.3
The governor asked her, “Who are you?”
And she said, “I am a servant of the living God. [God’s Son] is the way of salvation and the foundation of immortal life. He is a refuge for those who are distressed, a remission for the afflicted, a shelter for the despairing.”4 The governor released Thecla. She rejoined Paul and taught and inspired the women around her. She was a healer, a miracle worker, but she never stopped being persecuted. She lived in a cave until she was about 90. When her persecutors caught up with her, God miraculously opened a new pathway through the cave and caused the stones to wall up once she had gone through.5 Hers is one of many stories of heroism from the early church – Christians facing persecution and torture. So many of them held fast to their proclamation of faith – even when it cost them their lives.
[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Thecla
[2] “Acts of Paul and Thecla” from Readings in World Christian History Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Eds. John W. Coakley & Andrea Sterk. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011, 48-50.
[3] Ibid, 50-51.
[4] Ibid, 51.
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thecla