Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/29

 Symposium Decem Virginum (written about A. D. 300). Into this Symposium or dialogue ten virgins are introduced as contending in the presence of Areté concerning chastity. At the end of the dialogue Thecla leads off a hymn, to which the rest, standing round as a chorus respond: "I keep myself pure for Thee, O Bridegroom, and holding a lighted torch I go to meet Thee."

In inviting Thecla to speak, Areté designates her a disciple of Paul: in her oration she speaks of those who "set little by wealth, distinction, race or marriage, and are ready to yield their bodies to wild beasts and to the fire, because of their yearning and enthusiasm for the things that are in supermundane places." After Gregorion had finished the address, Euboulios cannot suppress her admiration; she knows of other acts of Thecla, with which what they have just heard coincides, for says she: "I know her wisdom also for other noble actions, and what sort of things she succeeded in speaking, giving proof of supreme love to Christ; and how glorious she often appeared in meeting the chief conflicts of the martyrs, procuring for herself a zeal equal to her courage, and a strength of body equal to the wisdom of her counsels." After the last two virgins have finished speaking, Areté addresses them all saying: "And having in my hearing sufficiently contended by words, I pronounce you all victors and crown you: but Thecla with a larger and thicker chaplet, as the chief of you, and as having shone with greater luster than the rest." From the latter passage we can infer how greatly esteemed Thecla was already in the third century. Allusions to her we find also in the writings of Gregory Nazianzen. In his first address against Julian the Apostate, he concluded a catalogue of apostles and disciples of the apostles with Thecla; he also speaks of her as a virgin who had escaped the "tyranny" of her betrothed husband and her mother (Oratio, XXIV.) and (Exhortatio ad Virgines, II) connects