E05599: The Miracles of Saint Thekla recounts how *Thekla (follower of the Apostle Paul, S00092) healed a poor labourer Pausikakos from blindness in the so called Myrsineon, located near her shrine at Seleucia. Written in Greek at Seleucia ad Calycadnum (southern Asia Minor) in the 470s.
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posted on 2018-05-29, 00:00authored byCSLA Admin
Miracles of Saint Thekla, 23
Summary:
There was a man called Pausikakos whom the saint deemed worthy of a cure, even though he was an impoverished labourer. He was afflicted with a disease of the eyes and lost his sight; this resulted either from the negligence or incompetence of the physicians. But thanks to the martyr Thekla's miraculous intervention, he regained his eyesight.
He did not go the church, but to the smaller outer precinct located not far away from the church; it was called the Myrsineon, that is, the Myrtle Grove, where it was believed that the martyr spent most of her time. He confined himself there in some way and was lamenting and supplicating, and he kept doing it until he regained his sight. The darkness that had affected his eyes receded and the light entered again. Those who had seen him blind for a long time, now could see him performing his routine and habitual activities. The entire city of Seleucia witnessed this miracle.
Text: Dagron 1978. Summary: J. Doroszewska.
History
Evidence ID
E05599
Type of Evidence
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Language
Greek
Evidence not before
470
Evidence not after
476
Activity not after
476
Place of Evidence - Region
Asia Minor
Place of Evidence - City, village, etc
Seleucia ad Calycadnum
Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Seleucia ad Calycadnum
Nicomedia
Νικομήδεια
Nikomēdeia
Izmit
Πραίνετος
Prainetos
Nicomedia
Cult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)
Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Saint as patron - of a community
Cult Activities - Miracles
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Merchants and artisans
Crowds
Source
The anonymous text known under the title of The Life and Miracles of Thekla was written in the city of Seleucia-on-the-Calycadnum in the province of Isauria in southern Asia Minor around 470. It was certainly written before c. 476, which is approximately when Thekla's shrine outside Seleucia (modern Meriamlik/Ayatekla in Turkey) was monumentalised by the emperor Zeno (r. 474-491), since this activity is not mentioned in the text.
The text consists of two parts: the first half is a paraphrased version of the second-century Acts of Paul and Thekla, a text which was widely known in Late Antiquity and translated into every early Christian language; this early text was rendered by our author into Attic Greek, and contains many minor changes to the original story, with one major change at the end: instead of dying at the age of 19 years, Thekla descends into the earth and performs miracles in and around the city of Seleucia in a spiritual state. The second half, from which this passage is drawn, comprises a collection of forty-six miracles, preceded by a preface and followed by an epilogue. It is written in a high literary style which distinguishes it among other hagiographical texts, which were typically composed in a low style of Greek.
The text was for a long time attributed to a 5th century bishop, Basil of Seleucia (fl. c. 448-468); but in 1974 Dagron demonstrated conclusively that the Miracles could not have been authored by Basil, since there is an invective directed against him in chapter 12. The anonymous author is himself the subject of a few miracles, including miraculous interventions on his behalf in ecclesiastical disputes.
Discussion
On the Myrsineon Grove see Dagron 1978: 413-415, and the Appendix.
Bibliography
Edition:
Dagron, G., Vie et miracles de sainte Thècle (Subsidia hagiographica 62; Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1978), with French translation.
Translations:
Johnson, S.F., Miracles of Saint Thekla, in : S.F. Johnson and A.-M. Talbot, Miracle Tales from Byzantium (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 12; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), 1-201.
Festugière, A.-J., Collections grecques de Miracles: sainte Thècle, saints Côme et Damien, saints Cyr et Jean (extraits), saint Georges (Paris: Éditions A. et J. Picard, 1971).
Further reading:
Barrier, J., et al., Thecla: Paul's Disciple and Saint in the East and West (Leuven: Peeters, 2017).
Dagron, G., “L'auteur des Actes et des Miracles de Sainte Thècle,” Analecta Bollandiana, 92 (1974), 5–11.
Davis, S., The Cult of Saint Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Honey, L., “Topography in the Miracles of Thecla: Reconfiguring Rough Cilicia,” in: M.C. Hoff and R.F. Townsend (eds), Rough Cilicia: New Historical and Archaeological Approaches, Proceedings on an International Conference held at Lincoln,
Nebraska, October 2007 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013), 252–59.
Johnson, S.F., “The Life and Miracles of Thecla, a literary study” (University of Oxford, doctoral thesis, 2005).
Kristensen, T.M., "Landscape, Space and Presence in the Cult of Thekla in Meriamlik," Journal of Early Christian Studies 24:2 (2016), 229-263.