De sancta Thecla martyre

An Encomium on the Holy Protomartyr and Apostle Thecla. The grace of the Spirit has set up for us beautiful images of the saints, their annual commemorations, and by time it continually preserves their deeds, which would otherwise fall into oblivion, as fresh. For each person, encountering the memory as if it were some image, beholds the beauty of the deeds reflected, and contemplates the deeds as they lie in the image of the memory. And it seems to me that today I behold that blessed maiden, as if she stood in the image of memory, and with one hand she raises a crown over pleasures, with the other over dangers; and with one she offers virginity, with the other martyrdom, to the Master of all. Now, for her, even the things of virginity were, to those who examine closely, a great martyrdom before martyrdom. For pleasures are terrible executioners of the body—or rather, more terrible than executioners: they stretch one with bonds not made by hands; they scrape the soul through the eyes; they offer through the ears, to the unyielding resolve, the torch of pleasure; they scourge the mind with a sharp whip; they stir up against us one array after another. When one commands the eyes to be blinded to beauties, pleasures pry open what is closed through the ears with licentious songs that dissolve; when they encounter ears closed to wanton songs, they mock the thoughts, adorned licentiously; when, to speak concisely, we conquer them through all things while awake, they fight shadows against us while we sleep; and this cycle of array is eternal for them, not ceasing with the sun, nor resting with the night.

If they also lay hold of youth, it becomes a clash of fire against fire, a joining of furnace to straw. Youth is easily kindled by pleasures, being more oily for ignition, more delicate for the labors of chastity. All these things made virginity a kind of long martyrdom for the blessed maiden, as she boxed against pleasures, as the martyr does against wild beasts; as she wrestled with her thoughts, as he did with tortures; as she engaged with notions of pleasure, as with the compulsion of executioners; yet she conquered so manifold and domestic a war. For the fire of her resolve was more fiery and holy than the fire of nature. But nature yielded to the maiden, and though it tyrannizes others and rages for union, in Thecla it practiced virginity. Her parents, however, not knowing the maiden’s covenants for virginity, nor that the Lord Christ had given from heaven the bridal escort to her, gave her many long admonitions about marriage. But Paul’s incantation had already filled the maiden’s ears: “The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.” A crown of virginity at once; this itself was for her the first manner of care: for she cares for a care full of blessings, she cares for a concern freer than any freedom from care, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.

She had nothing in common with the earth, no kinship with the compulsions of marriage—such as enduring a bridegroom who commits fornication, bearing groundless suspicions, being deprived of the freedom to go out for necessary purposes, being directed in matters of food, being envied when adorned, being scorned before she bears a child as if she were not yet a wife, and after giving birth, finding accusations brought against her concerning the children. A female child is born? Because it is not male, the husband is sullen. A male child is added as well? The child that is born is found fault with as not being handsome. Both are charming in beauty? The anxiety over beautiful children is more bitter. They are weaned from milk? The struggle of rearing them again takes over: when they are healthy, fear that they may not fall ill; when they are ill, dread that they may not die; when they die, fear that one will henceforth be held in contempt as childless; when they do not die, the anxiety over the living is heavier—whence the provision for the children’s education, whence the preparation for their marriage contract, whence the decency of their clothing, whence the distribution of servants to each, what portion of the property to assign to the elder, how to appease the younger who is envious. The unmarried woman concerns herself with the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in both body and spirit. I do not denigrate the nature of marriage, for it is the common provision for the race; but I expose the anxiety in marriage, I set heavenly anxiety before fleshly anxiety, I prefer a better good to a good one. The virgin is superior even to the penalties against Eve: for “Your return is to your husband, and he will rule over you” is powerless against those not dominated by husbands; “You will bear children in pains” is idle for those who practice virginity.

For she who does not give birth is free from the decision of painful labor pains. Already you, the virgin, delight in the pledges of future things; already you dwell with the sanctification of the resurrection. For in the resurrection, it is said, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Therefore the fall from this state is very great, because the achievement is also great; therefore the wantonness of a woman who prostitutes herself is more abominable than that of one who lives as a virgin; for the corruption of a virgin and that of a prostitute are not equal; the corruption of a commoner and that of a queen are not equal; the theft of a sacred vessel and that of a common one are not equal. For the virgin is a sacred vessel, a purple robe, which it is not lawful to be fitted to any other than the king of all, a bride who always possesses a virgin marriage. O blessed marriages, whose bed is virginity. For the sake of these, the dangers of the blessed martyr; for she saw the beauty of the bridegroom, and was not torn away from the sight. Her mother pressed her toward marriage, but she cried out to her bridegroom in the heavens: "I have raised my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven." A suitor came, tickling her with nuptial speech, but she arranged herself with Christ, saying, "My soul has clung behind you." Relatives flocked, flattering her, but she imagined Paul testifying: "I have betrothed you to one man, to present you, a pure virgin, to Christ." Servants besought her with tears, but she sang amorously to her bridegroom: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" Judges frightened her with punishments, but she trampled all underfoot with her spirit, crying out: "Rulers are not a fear for good deeds, but for evil ones.

But as it was necessary that even on the roads of virginity statues be erected to the martyr, something of this kind befell the girl as a trial. Released from the judgment, she pursued the hunt for Paul, and guided by rumors, she boldly ventured even on the roads leading to Paul. But the devil was watching the girl, and having watched her journeying, he set the suitor against the girl, like a robber of virginity in the wilderness. And indeed, as the noble girl was completing her journey, the suitor, a horse-whore, following behind, howled for her capture; there was impassable distress on all sides; the enemy was strong, the one attacked was fragile. Where in the wilderness is there a refuge of refuge? But turning to heaven, the virgin, to the one present everywhere to all who call, cried out with lamentations: "Lord my God, in you I hoped.