Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/30

 her escape with Paul's suffering hunger. Gregory of Nyssa (Hom., XIV. in Cant, cantic.) speaks of her as Paul's virgin disciple, and (Vita Macrinæ) he calls her a virgin martyr. Epiphanius (Hæres. 79, 5) puts Thecla by the side of Elias, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mother, and praises her for sacrificing under Paul's teaching her prospects of a prosperous marriage. Chrysostom tells us how Thecla managed to see Paul. In his Homily, XXV. (in Acta Apost.) he says: "Hear then of the blessed Thecla, who for the sake of seeing Paul, gave up her jewels; but thou wilt not give an obolus for the sake of seeing Christ."

Isidore of Pelusium (Lib., I. epist. 260) calls her "protomartyr," and John of Damascus in an address on those who have died in the faith, says, that one should pray to God not for his own soul alone, but also for that of others, as the protomartyr Thecla had done. Zeno of Verona (De Timore) of the fourth century who joins her name with that of Daniel, Jonah, Peter gives an account of the Thecla-Antiochian martyrdom as told in the Acts, giving as it does particulars of the bulls goaded to attack her, her perils from the seals, and the fiery cloud which covered her nakedness. Ambrose joins her name with that of Agnes and with the virgin Mother, Daniel and John as the " Immaculatus chorus puritatis " (De lapsu virginls, c :3, 4), and with Miriam, Moses' sister (epist. 63, 34 Ad Vercellensem eccles.); and Sulpicius Severus in his account of St. Martin of Tours, written about 403 narrates that Thecla together with Agnes and Mary often appeared unto him. Even Jerome though as we have seen he rejects the written narrative of her life, asserts the traditional prevalence of her fame by adducing her as an example of saintliness. Churches were built in Thecla's honor. As early as 385 A. D. the "Martyrium"