Praise to the Holy First Martyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles Thekla

The days of remembrance of saints should remind us of their deeds. St. Thekla is a virgin and martyr. Virginity is a special type of martyrdom, since it requires a constant struggle with passions. The height of virginity: it is free from countless worries inseparable from married life, free from the punishment announced to Eve, it prefigures heavenly life on earth. St. Thekla is persuaded by everyone to marry, but to no avail. The danger that threatened her on the way to the ap. Palu. - Trust in God. The grace of the Spirit erected for us beautiful images of the saints on the annual days of their memory, and through this constantly preserves new their deeds, which fall into oblivion over time. Everyone, meeting their day of remembrance, like a certain picture, sees the beauty of their deeds and contemplates the deeds inscribed on this image, represented by the day of remembrance. So today, it seems to me, I see this blessed virgin, as if standing in a picture represented by the day of remembrance, holding a crown in one hand - for the struggle with pleasures, and in the other - for the struggle with dangers, and bringing virginity to the Lord of all with one hand, and martyrdom with the other. Thus, she also had feats of virginity, which for those who carefully consider them seem, in a certain sense, like a great martyrdom before martyrdom. And truly, pleasures are some kind of cruel executioners for the body, or better yet, they are more cruel than executioners, because they bind with bonds not made by hands, scrape the soul through the eyes, bring the torch of voluptuousness to the stronghold of thought through hearing, scourge the mind with their barbed scourge, and launch one attack after another against us. When someone has commanded the eyes to be blind to beauty, pleasures through the ears open the enclosed refuge, open it with voluptuous songs; when they meet ears closed for prodigal songs, then they attack the thoughts, voluptuously embellished; when, to put it briefly, we defeat them, constantly awake, then they will overcome us sleeping with dreams: such is their constant cycle of struggle, which does not awaken with the sun and does not calm down at night. If, moreover, they grasp youth, then fire is intertwined with fire, the burning stove touches the brushwood. Youth is easily kindled by pleasures, being more capable of ignition than oil, and very tender for feats of chastity. It was all this that made virginity for the blessed virgin a kind of prolonged martyrdom; she fought with pleasures, like a martyr with wild beasts, fought with thoughts, like he fought with executions, fought with voluptuous thoughts, like with the tortures of executioners, and yet remained victorious in such a diverse and cumulative war, because the fire of her will was more ardent than natural fire and holy. But nature submitted to the virgin, and, while dominating others and encouraging them to combine, with Thekla it served as an exercise in chastity; and her parents, not knowing the vows of virginity of their daughter, nor the fact that Christ the Lord became engaged to her by giving her the right hand from heaven, gave her many lengthy suggestions regarding marriage. The virgin’s ears were filled with Paul’s song: “The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord... so that she may be holy in both body and spirit” (1 Cor. 7:34). This is the crown of virginity; This is her first form of thoughtfulness; she cares with a care filled with blessing, she cares with a thought that is freer than any carelessness: may she be holy both in body and spirit. She has nothing in common with the earth, no affinity with marriage needs, such as, for example, (with the need) to endure the infidelity of her husband, to endure vain suspicions, not to have the freedom to usefully leave the house, to take care of food, being adorned with envy, to experience ridicule before giving birth, as if she were still unmarried, and after giving birth to face reproaches for the birth. Has any girl been born? The husband looks gloomy that he is not a boy. Did you add a boy too? Has a child been born? It's not beautiful. Are they both pleasing in beauty? The beautiful ones seem to be harder to think about. Are they weaned from milk? Anxiety about education arose again; when they are healthy, the fear is that they will not get sick; when they get sick, they are afraid that they will not die; when they die, fear, so as not to be held in contempt for childlessness; and if they do not die, then the gravest thought is about the living, where will the funds come from for the education of children, how to arrange a marriage for them, how to (maintain) decency in clothing, how to divide slaves for each, how much to allocate from the property to the elder, how to calm the envy of the younger. The intruder cares for the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. I do not disgrace the essence of marriage, since this is a general way of preserving the family, but I declare to everyone the cares of married life, I place the care of heaven above the cares of the flesh, I prefer the best to the good. The Virgin stands above the punishments assigned to Eve, since the words: “Your desire is for your husband, and he will rule over you” (Gen. 3:16) are invalid in relation to those who are not subject to their husbands; and the words: “give birth to a child in illness” do not apply to virgins: a woman who does not give birth is not subject to the sentence of sorrowful illnesses of birth. You, virgin, are already enjoying the guarantees of the future; you already live with the holiness of the resurrection. “For in the resurrection,” said the Lord, “they neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30). Therefore, the fall in this matter is very great, just as the success is great; Therefore, the debauchery of a virgin is more vile than a harlot, since the corruption of a virgin and a harlot are not the same, the corruption of a simple wife and a queen are not the same, the theft of a sacred vessel is not the same and an ordinary one. After all, the vessel is a sacred virgin - purple, in which no one else is allowed to be clothed except the King of all - a bride who constantly has a virgin marriage. O blessed marriage, whose bed is virginity! For his sake, the blessed martyr (faced) danger: she saw the beauty of the groom - and did not turn away from his appearance; the mother insisted, urging her to marry, but she cried out to the heavenly Bridegroom: “I lift up my eyes to You, Who dwells in heaven” (Ps. 122:1); the groom often came, deceiving him with a conversation about marriage, but she herself joined Christ, saying: “My soul cleaves to You” (Ps. 62:9); Relatives flocked and used affection, but she imagined Paul’s testimony: “I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you to Christ as a pure virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2); the servants begged with tears, but she sang with love to her Bridegroom: “who will separate us from the love” of Christ (Rom. 8:35); the judges also frightened them with executions, but she trampled on them all, generously crying: “Those in authority are not a terror to good works, but to evil ones” (Rom. 13:3). And since the martyr needed to place statues of virginity on the path, such a temptation happens to this young woman. Released from court, she hurried to catch in the footsteps of Paul and, guided by rumor, boldly walked along the paths leading to Paul; but the devil lay in wait for the virgin and, having waylaid her on the way, armed the groom against the virgin, like a robber in the desert, to steal her virginity. When she bravely made her way, the most dissolute groom, looking out from behind, was already triumphant in capturing her. The difficulty is hopeless on all sides: the attacker is strong, but the one being attacked is weak; where is any refuge in the absence of refuge? Turning to heaven, the virgin cried out to the One who is everywhere present in all who call: “Lord, my God! in You I trust” (Ps. 7:2). Her memory is celebrated on September 24. The creation of St. John Chrysostom is questioned on the basis mainly of syllable characteristics. In Minh's edition it belongs to the Dubia department.