St. Thecla - Mission Hills, CA
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Metro2
N 34° 16.389 W 118° 27.708
11S E 365434 N 3793409
Located in the Museum at Mission San Fernando at 15151 San Fernando Mission Blvd, Mission Hills, CA 91345.
Waymark Code: WMRW2D
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 08/10/2016
Views: 0
A sign accompanying this sculpture of St. Thecla in the Museum at Mission San Fernando reads:
"St. Thecla
18th Century
Patron Saint of Librarians from Austria,
hand carved polychromed wood draped
with small gold cape.
Presented by Hans S. Hollanger in August
1968."
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Thecla or Tecla ... was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. Although Church Fathers Tertullian and Jerome rejected her story, she enjoyed great popularity in the Byzantine period.
Legend
The Acts of Paul and Thecla is a 1st or 2nd century text, which forms part of the Acts of Paul but also circulated separately. According to the text, Thecla was a young noble virgin from Iconium who listened to Paul's "discourse on virginity", espoused the teachings and became estranged to both her fiancé, Thamyris, and her mother. They became concerned Thecla would follow Paul's demand "one must fear only one God and live in chastity" and turned to the authorities to punish both Paul and Thecla.
Thecla was miraculously saved from burning at the stake by the onset of a storm and travelled with Paul to Antioch of Pisidia. There, a nobleman named Alexander desired Thecla and attempted to take her by force. Thecla fought him off, assaulting him in the process, and was put on trial for assaulting a nobleman. She was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts but was again saved by a series of miracles, when the female beasts protected her against her male aggressors. While in the arena, she baptised herself.
She rejoined Paul in Myra, travelled to preach the word of God and became an icon encouraging women to imitate her by living a life of chastity and following the word of the Lord. She went to live in Seleucia Cilicia. According to some versions of the Acts, she lived in a cave there for 72 years. As she became a healer, the Hellenistic physicians in the city lost their livelihood and solicited young men to rape her. As they were about to take her, a new passage was opened in the cave, and the stones closed behind her. She was able to go to Rome and lay beside Paul's tomb."