KATE COOPER

A saint in exile: the early medieval Theda at Rome and Meriamlik1

And Theda arose and said to Paul: I am going to Iconium. But Paul said, Go and teach the word ofGod! .... And when she had borne this witness she went away to Seleucia; and after enlightening many with the word of God she slept with a noble sleep.2

Thus ends the most evocative of the apostolic romances of the early Christian period, the second-century Acts of Paul and Thecla. It is a text which has excited controversy virtually from the time of its composition, due to its suggestion that a heroic virgin accompanied Paul of Tarsus during a segment of his travels around the Mediterranean, preaching the word of God - with his explicit encouragement - as she went. This legend conferred on the figure of Theda a notoriety and a magnetism virtually unique among the heroines of the early church.

In its outline, Thecla's story is not remarkably unlike that of the other heroines of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, but it stands as the epitome of the genre in its vivid evocation of Thecla's dedication to Paul, and the miraculous powers which she discovers as she persists in witnessing publicly to the faith. The Acts of Paul and Thecla introduce her as a virgin whom Paul encounters during his stay at the house of

1 Thanks are due to friends and colleagues for encouragement and assistance in the preparation of this article, among them Joseph Alchermes, Patricia Brown, Peter Brown, Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, David Frankfurter, Ross Shepard Kraemer, Conrad Leyser, \lasiliki Limberis and Elizabeth Sears. None are responsible for the errors committed herein.

2Acta Pauli et Thedae, pp. 41 and 43 (text in RICHARD ADELBERT LIPSIUS and MAXIMILIAN BONNET, eds., Acta apostolorum apocrypha, Leipzig, 1891, vol. I, pp. 267 and 269).