The ''Life and Miracles of Saint Thecla'' ( la, De vita et miraculis sanctae Theclae) is an anonymous

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

Thecla Thecla ( grc, Θέκλα, ) was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal ''Acts of Paul and Thecla''. Church tradition The ''Acts of ...

, the reputed follower of

Paul of Tarsus Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

, written between 468 and 476. It consists of two books, the first a biography and the second an account of 46 posthumous

miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

s wrought by Thecla. The ''Life'' is an expansion of the earlier Greek ''Acts of Thecla''. The full ''Life and Miracles'' is about ten times longer than the ''Acts''. The ''Life'' circulated independently of the ''Miracles'', but the ''Miracles'' was always transmitted with the ''Life''. There are a total of twelve

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...

s of the ''Life'', but only four of those include the ''Miracles''. The manuscripts that include the ''Miracles'' are: *Vaticanus gr. 1667 (10th century), which is lacunose *Mosquensis synod 26 (11th century) *Atheniensis 2095 (12th century), which is in the best condition *Vaticanus gr. 1853 (10th century), a

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

with only fragments of the ''Life and Miracles'' The ''Life and Miracles'' is an anonymous work written in

Seleucia Seleucia (; grc-gre, Σελεύκεια), also known as or , was a major Mesopotamian city of the Seleucid empire. It stood on the west bank of the Tigris River, within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq. Name Seleucia ( grc-gre, Σ ...

. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, it was usually attributed to Bishop

Basil of Seleucia Basil of Seleucia was a Bishop and ecclesiastical writer. He was archbishop of Silifke, Seleucia ad Calycadnum by 448. He condemned Eutyches in the year 448, he "acquiesced" while "rehabilitating" at the Latrocinium in 449, "but recanted and signed ...

, a contemporary of the actual author. This may have been based on the remark by

Photios Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...

in the 9th century that Basil wrote an verse account of the deeds of Thecla. As the ''Life and Miracles'' is prose, it cannot be the work mentioned. In fact, the author remarks that Basil excommunicated him for a time. Nevertheless, he is still often known as Pseudo-Basil of Seleucia. __NOTOC__

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Secondary literature