Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Thekla
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of the Holy Protomartyr Thekla, Equal-to-the-Apostles! If we look at the history of the Church, we see that there were saints who were once highly venerated, but later became less so. This applies to Saint Thekla. The entire ancient Church, right up until the 15th century (now she is highly venerated only in Syria), held her in high esteem. Yet many Orthodox Christians don't even know her life, which is remarkable.
Saint Thekla was from Asia Minor and lived in the city of Iconium, near Antalya, now Konya (fifty kilometers from Antalya). Saint Thekla was an ordinary pagan, a young woman of nineteen, betrothed to a pagan youth. At that time, the Apostle Paul was passing through the city, preaching the holy gospel. He went to preach in a high-rise building called an insula (Latin for "insula" — literally translated as "island" — in ancient Roman architecture, a multi-story residential building with rooms and apartments). At that time, cities already had high-rise buildings inhabited by the less wealthy. Saint Thekla lived in a mansion next to this "khrushchevka" building, where the Apostle Paul celebrated the Liturgy in one of the apartments.
At this time, Saint Thekla was sitting on the windowsill, dreaming of her fiancé and her future life, when she suddenly noticed a large gathering taking place literally across the street. One man was preaching, while everyone else listened. An interesting document, "The Acts of Paul and Thekla," survives, written in the second century based on historical tradition. According to this document, Thekla looked at the preacher and disliked him greatly. She described him as a very short, nimble Jew with bowed legs, red eyes, and a bald spot on his head, who ran constantly and moved very quickly. Thekla heard him begin to preach and was captivated by his beautiful speech; she sensed the extraordinary power and beauty of his words. The Apostle Paul's sermon was dedicated to the virtue of virginity. He spoke of the great reward that was promised to those who, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would renounce family, marriage, and go with Christ to the end, and give Him their whole heart, their whole life.
This news of the unprecedented virtue of virginity so overwhelmed Thekla that she converted to Christianity after just one sermon. She quickly ran downstairs, went up to the Apostle Paul, and after the sermon, she approached him and asked him to baptize her immediately. Paul refused, as the Apostles first taught people the basics of the faith and only then baptized them. It was with their blessing that the institution of catechumenate later arose in the Church, without which baptism is unacceptable. Soon, Saint Thekla was baptized by the Apostle Paul and became his disciple. She abandoned her fiancé, her parents, and her family, and followed the Apostle. Then the enraged fiancé sued the Apostle for stealing his bride and preaching other gods. But Paul had already left the city, and the fiancé sued Thekla, claiming she was forced into marriage. She refused, her ex-fiancé beat her, after which she left and settled in a cave outside Iconium.
This cave remains to this day. In it, Saint Thekla prayed to God, practiced piety, and emerging from there, preached the gospel in the surrounding villages, converting many people to the holy gospel. The Church calls her Equal-to-the-Apostles, as she carried out an apostolic preaching. Thekla then went in search of the Apostle and found him in Colossae (a city in Phrygia on the Lycus River, which existed between the 5th century BC and the 12th century AD), and they continued their journey together. In Ephesus, the Apostle was thrown into prison, and Thekla continued preaching the word of God in the cities of Asia Minor. She then returned to Iconium, where her fiancé recognized her. Thekla was thrown into prison, and at her fiancé's request, she was sentenced to death for refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods. She was sentenced to be torn apart by wild beasts. Saint Thekla was driven into the arena of the local Colosseum and lions were released, but instead of tearing her to pieces, they began licking her feet. She once cured one lion by removing a splinter from its paw.
The next day, Thekla was again brought to the center of the Colosseum and was about to be burned at the stake. She raised her hands to Heaven and began to pray, after which the fire began to die down and a heavy rain began to fall, dousing the bonfire. Saint Thekla withdrew and went to preach in Syria. At the age of ninety-eight, she departed to the Lord in virginity and purity, crowning herself with the crown of martyrdom as a preacher of the holy gospel, and with the crown of virginity. Filled with these virtues, she went to her beloved Bridegroom, Christ the Savior, and together with the Apostle Paul, she now resides in Heaven, where she prays for all Christians.
Looking closely at Thekla's life, we see what struck her. She was struck by the opportunity to realize what lies within every woman — service to something higher. Woman is created as a helper to her husband, but Thekla became a helper to the Apostle Paul in his preaching; she became a helper to Christ, to whom she devoted her entire life, her entire heart. Today, we speak very little about the beauty found in virginity, in monasticism. The Church has always considered marriage inferior to virginity. But marriage cannot be despised; it is a heresy condemned by the Holy Synods. Virginity is a higher service, when a person dedicates their love to God, when a person loves the Creator of the universe so much that they are willing to renounce everything for His sake, when they love God so much that they are willing to abandon everything to find His beauty.
A heavenly enchantment with the beauty of Christ permeates all monasticism. It is a wondrous state in which a person becomes angelic. They strive toward the heavens, forgetting all creation. This is the ideal of virginity and monasticism given to us by Saint Thekla, the founder of female monasticism. And if we do not understand this ideal, we will not be able to live normally either in monasticism or in marriage. If we do not hold as our highest standard that ardent love that overcomes even death, that overcomes everything possible on earth, if we do not understand the meaning of this great virtue, then we are not Christians. Christianity itself is built on this love, and it cannot be perceived as anything other than the love between God and man. Christianity is not a collection of moral rules, and it does not exist to strengthen society or support the greatness of any given state. Christianity does not even exist so that we can escape hell, it exists so that we, having fallen in love with God, love Him so much that we would give Him our whole soul, our whole heart, all our thoughts, so that we, for the sake of His beauty, would run, forgetting about everything.
This heavenly desire is the core of Christianity, which is why monasticism is considered the best embodiment of Christianity after martyrdom. This heavenly desire is embodied in Saint Thekla, who contained both: she bore witness before the peoples to the faithfulness of the Holy Trinity and to the belief in the power that conquered death, and she also demonstrated that within her resides a power stronger than beasts, stronger than fire, stronger than the hatred and betrayal of loved ones. She showed that within her dwells a love that embraced her and carried her beyond the confines of the universe. And Thekla received this love through words; it was captured by the Apostle Paul. May the Lord grant us also to be captured by this beautiful calling. If we lack a yearning for the Heavens, we will drift away from God. If we possess a yearning for the Heavens, we must ignite and blaze forth to ascend to heavenly life. Wherever we may be, we must remember that this is the ideal we must strive for. Saint Thekla was enchanted by heavenly love; may this enchantment also encompass us, so that we, too, touched by Divine Love, may forget everything and find the life of the Holy Trinity!
May the Lord save you by the grace of God!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
