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 THECLA

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THECLA

by the modern Copts, the Bij^oi of the Greeks. Thebes is mentioned three times in the Bible under tlie name of No-Amon in the Hebrew text, whieh the Vulgate each time renders incorrectly by Alexandria. Nahun (iii, 8-10) refers to the victories of Assurbanipal, King of Ninive, over Tanutamen, King of Egypt, as we now know from the cylinders of that sovereign (G. Smith, "History of Assurbanipal", 52-56). It is thought that Jeremias (xlvi, 25) and Ezechiel (xxx, 14-16) allude to the two campaigns of Nabuch- odonosor against Thebes, which took place in 583 and 588 b. c.

Originally a mere borough, Thebes grew by degrees, and as early as the twelfth dynasty its sovereigns dominated Egypt. Thenceforth also its god Amon-Ka, to whom the pharaohs had erected numerous monu- ments, became the foremost of the gods. Halted for a time by the invasion of the Hyksos, thccrow th of Thebes continued under the pharaohs of the null i ecu i h and especiallj- tho.se of the nineteenth dynasty, « ho ex- tended their dominion to the sources of the Euphrates. When the sovereigns of Thebes had become degener- ate they were replaced by the priests of the god Amon, who constituted themselves the twenty-first dynasty. They disappeared in turn and the capital of Egypt was then transferred to the Delta. The city began to fall away, especially after the Assyrian armies had cap- tured and devastated it in 668 and 664 b. c. and Nabuchodonosor had twice rifled it of its treasures. However, as long as there were Egyptian sovereigns, even under the Ptolemies, work was done at the temple of Karnak, which was only abandoned under the Roman domination. Thebes then became a place of jiilgrimage and sight-seeing. Christians estabhshed their churches in the temples, monks and laymen dwelt everywhere, preferably in the ancient tombs. The great earthquake of 27 B. c. caused some damage, but that which ruined the temples of Karnak must have occurred two or three centuries later.

A see was established at Thebes at an early date. Ammonius of Diospohs assisted at the Council of Nicira in 325, unless he was Bishop of Diospolis Parva (Harnack, "Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums", II); IMaletius was a partisan of Arius, according to Philostorgius and Nicetas Chonia- tes ("Thesaurus orthodoxaj fidei", V, 7); Hero apo.sta- tized under Juhus the Apostate, according to Philos- torgius (Hist, eccl., VII, 13); Stephen was Catholic metropolitan at the time of Photius, and Kalta was Jacobite mctropoHtan in 1086 (Le Quien, "Oriens Christ.", II, 611). The Coptic diocese, created in 1895, has 15,000 Catholics to 300,000 Jacobite Copts and about 3,(X)0,000 Mussulmans. There are 31 Coptic priests, 35 churches, besides 6 which belong to the Franciscans, 18 stations, 26 primary schools with about 500 pupils, 4 convents of Franciscans, 3 of Brothers of the Christian Schools, and 1 of native Sisters. The seminary which is used by the three Cojitic Catholic dioceses has 17 students and is situated at Tahtah, the residence of the Bishop of Thebes.

The ruins of Thebes arc among the most beautiful in the world. The city wa.s situated on both banks of the Nile, which is more than two miles wide at this point. On the right bank was the temple of Luxor, built by King Amenothes III and Rameses II, the great temple of Amon, and the great hypostylic hall of Karnak, the work of the pharaohs Rameses 1, Seti I, and Rameses II, and which is 337 feet broad by 169 feet deep. A veritable forest of 134 colossal columns divides it into three naves, forming a hall which has not its like in the world. The temples of Luxor and Karnak were joined by an alley nearly two miles long by about 3^4 miles wide, bordered by rams or criocephalous sphinxes. On the left side is Quournah, which begins the line of temples of which

the Ramesseum is almost in the centre and Medinet- Habou at the southern extremity. A line drawn around all these monuments either from the right or the left bank describes a circuit of nearly 8^4 miles. Now Diodorus Siculus (I, 45) and Strabo (XVII, 46) give almost the same dimensions to the Diospolis of the first century before Christ. But in the time of its real splendour, according to Eustathius and Stephanus Byzant ius, confirmed by other geographers and modern discoveries, Thebes was almost 400 stadia in circumference, or nearly 28 miles. It is probable, however, that these figures included not- only the extent of the city, but also the entire territory of the commune.

Lagier in Diet, de la Bible, s. v. No-Amon: B^n^dite, Guide Joanne: Bovpte (Paris, 1900). Both these authors give a detailed bibliography.

S. VAILHfi.

Thecla (Tecla), Saint, BenedictineAbbessof Kit- ziugen and Ochsenfurt; date of birth unknown; d. at Kitzingen about 790 or later. St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany, kept up a constant intimate correspond- ence with the community of Wimborne, Dorset, and from the abbess, Tetta, in 748-49, he obtained monas- tic colonies for Germany. Among these nuns one of the most illustrious for sanctity and learning was Thecla, a relative of St. Lioba, whom she accompanied from Wimborne and under whose rule she lived for some time at Tauberbischofsheim, until St. Boniface appointed her abbess of the newly founded abbey at Ochsenfurt. Later, on the death of St. Adelheid, or Hadelonga, the foundress and first Abbess of Kitzin- gen on the Main, she was called to rule that abbey while still retaining the government of Och.senfurt. The Roman as well as the English and Benedictine Martyrology connuemorate her on 15 October; others on 27 or 28 Sei>tember. The name Thecla does not appear on the list of the abbesses of Kitzingen, but it is generally thought that she is designated as Heilga, or "the saint '; unless we admit this, the list must be considered interpolated, .\mong Boniface's letters is one addressed to Lioba, Thecla, and Cync- hilde, as the heads of separate religious communities. Its tone reveals how far the nuns had entered as intel- ligent fellow-labourers into his apostolate. St. Boni- face seems to have had a threefold purpose in sum- moning these Anglo-Saxon nuns as his auxiliaries: — • to propagate the full observance of the Benedictine Rule by new foundations; to introduce it into already founded monasteries, and to restore its observance in others; and finally to bring their gentle influence to bear on the fierce Teuton women, both by example and by the education imparted to their children. The ruined Chapel of St. Thecla, on an islet in the Severn, may have been dedicated to her, ;us Walstod, a Saxon bishop, was set over that part at this time. Some have tried to prove St. Thecla one of the nuns of Barking to whom St. Aldhelin dedicated his "Treatise on Virginity", but its this treatise was written before 705, and a.s St. Lioba went to Germany about 748-49, it is evident t hat her disciple who survived her was not this nun of Barking.

Ochsenfurt gradually rleclined, most probably ow- ing to its proximity to Kitzingen. There is no record of its having any other abbess after St. Thecla. Kit- zingen was used for secular puqjoses by the mar- graves of Brandenburg, to whom it had been mort- gaged from 1440 to 1629, when it w.as redeemed by Philip Adoliihus, Bishop of Wiirzburg, and restored by ,Iohn (Jodfrey of Guttenl)crg as a school for the Ursu- lines. In 1S03 the institute of the I'rsulines was seo- tdarized, anil (o-ilay the abl)ey ihurch is in the hands of Protestants and serves as their |):irish chun'h. The tombs of St. Thecla and St. .\delhcid in this church were profaned in t he Pesisant s' War, 1525; a fanatic of Kitzingen used the heads to play at skittles; when the church was rebuilt (1695), the venerable bodies