Thekla of Iconium is venerated in the Orthodox Church as the Protomartyr among women and as Equal-to-the-Apostles, a disciple of the Apostle Paul whose life and missionary zeal made her one of the most widely honored female saints of the early Church. By tradition she was born in Iconium in Asia Minor to wealthy and distinguished parents and, while still a young woman, was betrothed to be married. Her commemoration falls on September 24.
According to the tradition, Thekla heard the preaching of the Apostle Paul and, moved by his words, resolved to renounce marriage and devote her life to the Gospel. Her refusal of the betrothal provoked the anger of her family and of the civil authorities. The synaxarion relates that she was condemned to be burned, but that a sudden storm of rain and hail extinguished the flames, and that she was afterward exposed to wild beasts which would not harm her. Through these sufferings she was preserved unharmed, which earned her the title of protomartyr — the first among women to confess Christ amid such trials.
Reunited with the Apostle Paul, Thekla accompanied him in preaching and is said to have proclaimed the Gospel in Antioch and other places, where she endured further torments. In her later years she withdrew to Isaurian Seleucia, where the tradition records that she lived for many years, healing the sick and drawing many to the faith. According to the synaxarion she reposed at the age of ninety; when men were sent against her, she called upon Christ and a rock opened to receive her, and she surrendered her soul to God.
The narrative of Thekla is preserved chiefly in the early Christian text known as the Acts of Paul and Thecla. From an early date she was widely venerated across the Christian East, and her example as a virgin, confessor, and proclaimer of the Gospel made her a model of Christian witness honored throughout the Orthodox world.
