Thecla

Greek saint

The Acts of Paul and Thecla, which was written in the 2nd century and is often untrustworthy, describes her as a member of a noble family in Iconium, Lycaonia, who was converted by the preaching of St Paul. She is said to have followed him, dressed in boy's clothes, to have suffered much for her faith, and to have died in Seleucia. Though the story seems to have a factual basis, it has become much embellished. Her feast day, formerly 23 September, was suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1969.