page_title: Thecla
section_title: Veneration
hierarchical_section_title: Thecla / Veneration
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the St. Taqla (Thecla) Shrine in Latakia, Syria, located in the Martaqla street. العربية: صورة لمزار القديسة تقلا في اللاذقية, سوريا, الموجود في شارع المرتقلا. Français&#160;: Photographie du sanctuaire de St. Taqla (Thecla) en Lattaquie, en l'Syrie, situé dans la rue Martaqla.
context_page_description: Thecla or Tecla was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla.
context_section_description: In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the wide circulation of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is evidence of her veneration. She was called "apostle and protomartyr among women" and "equal-to-apostles in sanctity". She was widely cited as an ascetic role model for women. During the fourth and fifth centuries, Thecla was lauded in literature as an exemplary virgin and martyr by ascetic writers and theologians such as Methodius of Olympus, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus. The Eastern Rites of the Eastern Orthodox Church commemorate her on 24 September in churches following the new Calendar and 7 October for those using the old or Julian Calendar.
  Her veneration flourished particularly at Seleucia Cilicia (where she was said to have lived to old age and be buried), Iconium (present day Konya), and Nicomedia. The society also appeared at least as early as the 4th century in Western Europe. Chamalières in France was believed to hold relics. The obscure saints, Tecla of Aquileia and of Trieste are modeled after her. In Bede's martyrology, Thecla is celebrated on 23 September, which was her feast day in the West, though in 1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed Thecla's feast day from the Calendar of Saints for lack of historic evidence. The Western Rite Parishes of the Orthodox Churches continue to celebrate her on 23 September (new Calendar Parishes) and 6 October (old Calendar Churches).
  A local martyr tradition of Thecla may have inspired an episode connected to Paul the Apostle. "It is otherwise difficult to account for the very great popularity of the cult of St. Thecla, which spread over East and West, and made her the most famous of virgin martyrs," wrote M. R. James, the editor of this Acta (James 1924).
caption: St. Thecla Shrine. Latakia, Syria
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