I have my breastplate of justice, I have the belt of truth: for I am not merely a wayfarer, but also a soldier. *The way that leads to life is narrow and straight* (Matt. 7:14). See, therefore, how Paul deals with the matter and how Moses provides the figures: how he deals with things sensible, and how he deals with spiritual things. Let us, therefore, also be eager, beloved, to imitate Abraham, that we may be received into his bosom, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
MONITUM.
In his work *On Sophonias*, he says that women were the Apostles of the Apostles: not that Thecla usurped the office of teaching in the Church, as heretics were wont to claim from her apocryphal Acts—as attested by Tertullian in *On Baptism*, ch. 17, and by Jerome in *On Ecclesiastical Writers* under Luke—but because, as Ado writes, she instructed many by the example and conversation of her life and even by her doctrine. In the *Horologium* of the Greeks, I read on September 24: *Of the holy Protomartyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles Thecla*; yet in their calendar translated into Latin, *Thecla the martyr, first of women*. So also ibid., July 22: *St. Mary Magdalene*. *Equal-to-the-Apostles* (Isapostolos) is how she is titled; see Evagr. Bk. III, ch. 8: *Zeno, having seen in a vision the holy and much-enduring protomartyr Thecla; Zeno having seen in a vision the holy, strenuous and excellent martyr Thecla.*
The Latin interpretation is by the same Fronto Ducæus.
PRAISE OF THE HOLY PROTOMARTYR AND APOSTLE THECLA (a)
The grace of the Holy Spirit, for the sake of those who neglect the marriage of Thecla, has raised up for us yearly commemorations, the icons of the saints, and perpetually preserves, fresh in the passage of time, their deeds, which would otherwise fall into oblivion. For everyone who encounters them as if in an icon of memory reflects on the beauty of the deeds, and contemplates the actions set within the icon of memory. And it seems to me today that I am contemplating that blessed maiden, as if standing in an icon of memory, holding aloft in one hand the crown won against pleasures, and in the other the crown won against dangers; offering in the one hand her virginity, and in the other her martyrdom to the Master of all. For indeed, she possessed the elements of virginity, which to those who accurately consider the matter, is a martyrdom great even before martyrdom. For pleasures are certain cruel tormentors of the body; or rather, more cruel than tormentors. For they bind with invisible chains; they flay the soul through the eyes; they bring through the ears to the unyielding mind of the soul the torch of love for pleasure; they lash the intellect with a stinging whip, and stir up one battle-line after another against us. When one commands the eyes to be blinded to beauty, pleasures open what has been closed through the ears, relaxing the soul with lascivious songs; when they encounter ears closed against shameful songs, they play wantonly with the thoughts, adorned with lasciviousness; when, to speak briefly, we overcome them while awake through all things, they war against our shadows while we sleep; and this cycle of battle is eternal for them, neither setting with the sun, nor finding rest at night. But if they take hold of youth, it is a collision of fire with fire, a clashing of furnace with straw. For youth is easily ignited by pleasures, as if more oily for combustion, as if more delicate for the toils of temperance. These things, truly, all made of virginity for the blessed virgin a long sort of martyrdom; boxing with pleasures, as the martyr with wild beasts; struggling with thoughts, as he with tortures; engaging with the concepts of the love of pleasure, as with the necessities imposed by tormentors; yet conquering, nevertheless, the war so various and domestic. For in her, the fire of the mind was more searing and holy than the fire of nature. But while nature yielded to the maiden—though it reigns in others and rages for union—in Thecla it was practicing virginity. The parents, however, not knowing the covenants of their child regarding virginity, nor the betrothal…
(a) Compared with the Royal Codex 2343, which does not vary.
A to extend their right hand to the Lord, who had granted it from heaven, urged her with many wordy admonitions toward marriage: but the ears of the maiden were already resounding with the song of Paul, "She that is not married thinketh upon the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit" (1 Cor. 7:34). Of virginity, the crown shall at once be given: this first affects the maiden with a certain kind of concern; for she is anxious with a care that is full of blessing, she is anxious with a care free from any base neglect, that she may be holy in body and in spirit. There is nothing in common for her with the earth, no relationship with nuptial necessities, such as having to tolerate a lecherous spouse, enduring false suspicions, being deprived of the power to go out into public when useful, inquiring about food, being dressed in a way liable to jealousy, being held in contempt before having given birth as if she were not yet made a wife, or, when she has given birth, falling into accusations over her offspring. Has a female child been born? If the child is not male, the husband wears a gloomy face. Is there a male added, then? A child is born, but one who is not handsome. Is each one of elegant form? An even more acerbic care follows because of their beauty. Are they weaned from milk? Again, the anxiety of education succeeds: when they are healthy, there is fear lest they fall ill; when they have fallen ill, the dread lest they die; when they have died, the fear lest she be despised thereafter as one bereft of children; when they have not died, as regarding the living, a heavier anxiety falls upon her: whence can funds for schooling be had, whence the equipment for a marriage contract, whence the adornment of garments, whence the distribution of servants to each, which of the goods shall she assign to the older, how shall she mitigate the envy of the younger? "She that is not married thinketh upon the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit." I do not malign the nature of matrimony: for it is a communal providence for the human race; but I divulge the cares of those who are married, I prefer heavenly concerns to carnal ones, I prefer the more beautiful to the merely beautiful. The virgin has even escaped the penalty with which Eve was punished: for that saying, "Thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Gen. 3:16), is invalid for those who are not pressed by the rule of men; that saying, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children" (ibid.), is idle for those who cultivate virginity; for she who does not give birth at all is immune from the sentence of the heavy pains of labor. Now, O virgin, you are delighted by the pledges of the future life; now, you have for yourself the sanctification of the resurrection. "For in the resurrection," it says, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Matt. 22:30). B Therefore, the fall from this state is plainly vast, since the good deed itself is also vast; thus, the lasciviousness of one who cultivates virginity is more wicked than that of a harlot: for the nature of the corruption for one cultivating virginity is not equal to that of a harlot; the nature of the corruption of a private woman and a queen is not equal; the nature of the theft of a vessel destined for sacred uses and one used for common things is not equal. For a virgin is a vessel destined for sacred uses, a purple garment which it is not permitted for another to wear, but only the King of all, a bride who always retains her virginal nuptials. O blessed nuptials, whose bridal chamber is virginity! For these reasons, the blessed martyr had to undergo so many dangers. For she had seen the beauty of the Bridegroom, and she was not torn away from the sight of Him; her mother was pressing her, urging her toward marriage: but she called out to the heavenly Bridegroom with these words, "I have lifted up mine eyes unto thee, who dwellest in heaven" (Ps. 122:1 [LXX 123:1]): the suitor was approaching, tickling her with nuptial discourse; but she was silently joining herself to Christ, saying, "My soul hath followed hard after thee" (Ps. 62:9 [LXX 63:8]): relatives were gathering, catching at her with flatteries; but Paul stood before her mind, testifying, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2): servants were begging with tears; but she was singing back to the Bridegroom in a lover’s way, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 8:35). Judges were terrifying her with punishments; but she, trampling them all underfoot with a great heart, shouted, "The rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil" (Rom. 13:3). But when it was necessary for the statues of virginity to be erected even upon the roads for the martyr, such a temptation as this arose for the girl. Liberated from the judgment, she was pursuing the prey of Paul, and having followed the report, she dared to commit herself to the roads that led to Paul. Furthermore, the devil was observing the girl, and when he had observed her making the journey, he sent into the girl a suitor as an enemy, a plunderer of virginity as if in a desert. And when she was now completing the journey, the suitor, a traveler on horseback, an eager pursuer, was shouting from behind that she had been caught; difficult straits pressed in on every side; the one who was waging the war was robust; she against whom the war was being waged was weak. Where was there any refuge for her from that pursuit? Then truly, the virgin turned toward heaven and cried out with laments to Him who is present to all who call upon Him everywhere, "O Lord my God, in thee have I put my trust" (Ps. 7:1).***