Thecla
Baptizes Herself
20 1Although this
first ordeal was rebuffed, right away a throne of many even more ferocious
beasts charged at Thecla. But that martyr’s mind was not occupied with fear of
the beasts and with their growling: she was entirely focused on her prayer. I
think that, as she prayed in interior silence, she used words like these:
THECLA: PRAYER TO
CHRIST
2”My master Christ, how great
is my gratitude to you for your counsel and purpose for me that, although I was
a girl, still cloistered and unknown to many, kept for marriage to Thamyris,
you led me forth through your own Paul, and you then found me worthy of your
seal and grace through him; 3you gave me a taste of labors and
dangers on your behalf, in Iconium through the fire and here through these many
untamed beasts; you have displayed me in public in the arena, not losing sight
of my salvation but exercising my faith in you and my purpose. 4For
all of this, not yet worthily, I thank you al the same that I have been found
by you wholly worthy of these sufferings and brandings. 5Since I see
the Enemy, still great and oppressive, always adding more and more to my
dangers, I have been afraid since I am weak by nature and worn down by these
evil acts, that I shall grow sluggish in the face in what remains of the
struggle and perhaps stay uninitiated and without my crown and—what’s more
difficult—that I shall slip away from your kingdom. 6If you see fit,
cloak me at last in death: release me from this fear by baptism through death; release
them from their toil against me. If I give up my life then they will give up
entirely the violence and tyranny against me.”
7When she was saying these
things (as seems likely), she turned by chance and saw a pool and water and seals
swimming in it, beasts who were themselves sea-going and man-eating and which
had likewise been prepared for Thecla’s punishment. 8Calling out a
few brief words to Christ, and so saying: “In your name, Lord, I am baptized
on my last day!” she lept into this water, desiring at least the
consummation of death and release to Christ. 9When this was
accomplished, the whole public resounded and rebuked this strange and fatal audacity:
to plunge headlong and recklessly into the water that so clearly held death
from the seals. 10While this is what the virgin welcomed gladly,
only so that she might meet with the consummation in Christ, the whole populace
keened at this—too foolhardly and horrible!—and showered the animal spectacle
with tears like snow. 11But the martyr was not overlooked: For suddenly
a heavenly fire flashed up and fell upon the waters; it removed from the beasts
their ability to act and it cloaked Thecla, who was naked, and provided for her
the necessity of a private chamber. (The Life of Thecla, ch. 20, in The Life
of Thecla: Apocryphal Expansion in Late Antiquity [trans. Andrew S. Jacobs;
Early Christian Apocrypha 11; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade Books, 2024], 81-82)