Where Do We Put Saint Thecla?: An Examination of Saint Thecla’s Place in Time, Theology, and Femininity

Acts of Thecla, from The Apocryphal Acts of The Apostles, is a text about the life and martyrdom of Thecla, an early Christian figure and the first female martyr (second only to Stephen). The author, an anonymous presbyter from Asia Minor, wrote this text in the apostolic style in the second century alongside Acts of Paul. The two texts were often grouped together as the Acts of Paul and Thecla, though Thecla’s section was much more popular, while Acts of Paul gradually disappeared in Late Antiquity.