E05588: The Miracles of Saint Thekla recounts how *Thekla (follower of the Apostle Paul, S00092) pulled a certain general Bitianos back from consorting with prostitutes and transferred his desire to his own wife. Written in Greek at Seleucia ad Calycadnum (southern Asia Minor) in the 470s.

Miracles of Saint Thekla, 20

Summary:

There was a very prosperous and wealthy couple. The husband's name was Bitianos and he was a general and a man of great power. He took great pride in his victory over the Persians. However, he was unfaithful to his wife and consorted with prostitutes. The wife, being jealous and despondent, approached the martyr Thekla with great dismay, weeping and cursing, but not against her husband, because she was still devoted to him, but against the women involved in prostitution.

The martyr did not turn away from the supplication. She corrected the husband's bad habit by transferring his desire to an appropriate desire for his own wife. And she did not do it by changing the appearance of the wife's body, but by changing the man's soul so that he despised prostitution and began to respect the bonds of marriage.

Text: Dagron 1978. Summary: J. Doroszewska.