Thecla was one of the most venerated saints in late antiquity. One of her followers created the Life of Thecla as an act of devotion in the fifth century, rewriting the popular Acts of Thecla and transforming it into the heroic saga of a saint. Replete with long speeches, dramatic flourishes and literary flamboyance, the Life of Thecla gives modern readers insight into the ways a gender-bending apostolic saint could be reframed and reimagined for later audiences. This first modern English translation of the Life explores its relationship with the earlier Acts as we its place in fifth-century concerns about miracles, healing, sainthood, and sexuality
The Life of Thecla is volume 11 in the series Early Christian Apocrypha, offered as part of the Westar Tools and Translations series in cooperation with the North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature (NASSCAL). The Early Christian Apocrypha series features fresh new translations of major apocryphal texts that survive from the early period of the Christian church. These non-canonical writings are crucial for determining the complex history of Christian origins. The series continues the work of Julian V. Hills, who edited the first six volumes of the series for Polebridge Press.
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ENDORSEMENTS AND REVIEWS
“The Life of Thecla is essential reading for any who are interested in Saint Thecla, women in Christianity, or the history of the early church. By providing the first English translation of this work, Andrew Jacobs helps a new audience understand Thecla’s prominence for many ancient Christians, and sheds light on social norms and religious practices of the fifth century.” ~ Susan F. Hylen, Emory University
“Andrew Jacobs offers an erudite and accessible introduction to the late ancient Life of Thecla, a work that embodies the complex, border-crossing reception history of one of the Christian tradition’s most important literary figures: Thecla of Iconium. His elegant translation is grounded in philological expertise and deep contextual understanding, and the publication in this series of Jacobs’s learned introduction and fluent translation makes the text available for the first time to a wide audience of English readers.” ~ Elizabeth A. Castelli, Barnard College