04 — The Cult of Thecla

The vast and well-documented late-antique cult of St. Thecla — by far the best-attested part of the whole dossier. The great pilgrimage shrine at Meriamlik near Seleucia, the eyewitness of the pilgrim Egeria, the imperial patronage of Zeno, and the fifth-century Life and Miracles that reshaped the narrative and recorded the shrine’s living devotion.

Files

File	Description
the-shrine-at-seleucia.md	The pilgrimage shrine at Meriamlik/Hagia Thekla near Seleucia ad Calycadnum; the cave-sanctuary and the great basilica; the emperor Zeno’s patronage; Egeria’s visit (c. 384) and the deaconess Marthana; what survives.
the-life-and-miracles.md	The fifth-century Life and Miracles of Thecla: its two parts (paraphrase of the Acts plus forty-six contemporary miracles), the disputed attribution to Basil of Seleucia, the “living disappearance,” and the developed cult it documents.

See Also

• The Narrative — the Acts that the Life and Miracles rewrites
• The Source Problem — the cult as the best-attested part of the dossier
• Feast and Relics — the conflicting later relic traditions