By Elaine Gounaris Hanna
From The Word, December 1998
St. Thekla was born in Iconium of eminent pagan parents. She was betrothed at the age of eighteen to a young man. At the same time, St. Paul had come to Iconium with Barnabas to preach the Gospel. St. Thekla had the opportunity to listen to St. Paul for three days and nights. She became a Christian and vowed to live her new life as a virgin, in asceticism, so that she could dedicate her entire life to Christ. Her mother, enraged that Thekla had spurned her betrothed, beat her, starved her, then turned her over to the judge and demanded that Thekla be burned. The judge sent her to be burned, but God preserved the saint from the flames. Thekla then followed St. Paul to Antioch. There, attracted by her beauty, an elder in the city tried to take her by force. Thekla refused him, so the man dragged her before the judge and denounced her as a Christian. She was thrown to the wild beasts, but they would not harm her. Amazed, the judge released her. She then began to preach the Gospel and brought many to Christ.
With the blessing of St. Paul, she retreated to a solitary place near Seleucia where she lived for a long time in asceticism. God granted her the gift of healing, which she used freely, thus bringing many to the Christian faith. The doctors in Seleucia were jealous of her healing power, so they sent some young men to assault her, hoping that if she lost her virginity, she would lose her miraculous healing power as well. Thekla fled, but seeing that the young men were about to capture her, she prayed to God for help in front of a gigantic rock. The rock opened and hid her. This open rock became the cave in which she spent the remainder of her life and eventually became her tomb.
St. Thekla is called “The Protomartyr among Women.” Usually we think of a martyr as someone who has died for Christ. Yet St. Thekla lived to a ripe old age and died a peaceful death. So what does “martyr” mean in her case? The word martyr is a Greek word, which means witness. A Christian martyr, therefore, is someone who witnesses to Christ in his or her life.
St. Thekla the Protomartyr witnessed to Christ in every facet of her life. Let us look more closely at her life and see how it might apply to our daughters today. First, she spurned paganism — and the society it created — and accepted Christ. We might be tempted to say here, “We don’t live in a pagan society, so this does not apply to us.” But in reality, what is a pagan society but one in which other deities are worshiped? Can we honestly say that our American society worships the one, true God? Probably not. We live in a society dominated by the media, where the appellation “Christian” applied to a politician, entertainment or other public figure usually is offered in a pejorative tone. The term “Christian” has come to mean a crazy, far-right, narrow-minded, mean-spirited, unenlightened bigot! How do we teach our daughters to respond to this? Do they have to hide being a Christian to avoid ridicule or even persecution in school? Or have we taught them to courageously stand up for their beliefs and to be unashamed of being a Christian? In many places our daughters are being assailed for being Christians and for having Christian values, standards, and morals.
It is not so far-fetched to say that we live in a kind of pagan society where the deities of money, power, sex, drugs, violence, and immorality are being preached and worshiped daily. We need to fortify our daughters, to steel them against these unchristian standards, and lead them to emulate St. Thekla in her steadfastness in repelling the relentless onslaughts against her and in her firm resolve to proclaim Christ as her Lord and Savior.
Next, St. Thekla chose to live her new Christian life as a virgin in asceticism, in order to serve her Lord fully. Certainly, I hope, we all agree that virginity before marriage is absolutely essential for a Christian! But what can we say about the monastic life? Is that for our daughters? Some of us might say, “Definitely not! We want our daughters to marry and have grandchildren for us.” But, I would say, let us instead teach our daughters to be open to the possibility that God may have chosen them for the monastic life. It is not a life for everyone, but it is the life chosen by God for some. Let us not discourage our daughters from this path if it is the one God has chosen for them.
Thirdly, St. Thekla, having been granted by God the gift of healing, gave freely of that gift to others, without asking for anything in return, thereby bringing many to Christ. All of us, in fact, including our daughters, have been granted some gift or even many gifts by God. How we use that gift is important. Do we teach our daughters to use their gifts purely for self-gain or self-gratification or do we encourage them to use their gifts to benefit others, to serve the Church, and to glorify God as did St. Thekla?
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Protomartyr Thekla September 24
Troparion, Tone Three
Inspired by the divine teacher's words thou wast inflamed with love for thy Creator. Thou didst disdain all earthly pleasures and endure wild beasts and fire. O glorious Thekla, companion of Paul, entreat thy divine Bridegroom to grant us His great mercy.
Kontakion,Tone Eight
Radiant with virginity and adorned with the crown of martyrdom, thou wast a bearer of the Faith. Thou didst turn flames to dew and tame a wild bull by thy prayer, O glorious Thekla, first woman martyr.
