NIEUMĘCZONA MĘCZENNICA. KONSTRUOWANIE MĘCZEŃSKIEJ LEGENDY ŚW. TEKLI
A NON-MARTYRED MARTYR. THE CREATION OF SAINT THECLA’S MARTYROLOGICAL LEGEND

Summary/Abstract: Saint Thecla has been venerated as a martyr and even protomartyr in the Christian East and West. She has even been considered a female alter ego of Saint Stephen. However, while Stephen was perceived as a prototype of the perfect Christian martyr since his death, Thecla was first created as an icon of another Christian concept – celibacy. The apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla were a primal and always predominant source of her legend. When looking at it from the perspective of two fundamental components of the Christian notion of martys, i.e. the testimony of faith and the physical sufferings, one promptly notices the striking differences between the two saints. Nonetheless, some features of Thecla’s story made their association possible. This article investigates the phenomenon of ancient authors’ growing attention to the martyr-like motifs of the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the circumstances that eventually led to the unexpected spread of her cult as a martyr and spectacular promotion of this saint in Late Antiquity.

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