The Cave of St Paul in Ephesus

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Perhaps from the time of St John and the Virgin Mary, generations of Ephesian Christians used the cave or grotto of St Paul as a haven and/or a gathering place. They decorated the walls of its long entrance-corridor with graffiti and paintings. The most notable is the image of Paulos with Thekla; both named in Greek. Both figures were making the sign of blessing but Thekla’s right hand and eyes have been defaced.


St Thecla/Thekla was the virgin disciple of St Paul, who dressed as a man, became an evangelist and is known from the, once-popular, ‘Acts of Paul and Thekla’. There may be some fact behind Thekla’s fascinating but mysterious story but, if so, St Paul gave no hint of her in his canonical epistles. What matters is that everyone believed in her.

Thekla’s tradition was disseminated in the 2nd century by the apocryphal ‘Acts of Paul and Thekla’, which profoundly influenced both men and women. Thekla’s popularity apparently rivalled that of the Virgin Mary. Even the great Cappadocian Father, St Gregory Nazianzus, spent time at her shrine. The inexpensive keepsakes carried away by pilgrims were widely dispersed, proving how popular she was with ordinary people.

This is her story. When Thekla first heard St Paul preach she was transfixed by his teachings and became his disciple. She refused to marry her fiance and travelled around with Paul. She became an ascetic and baptised herself in a pond with killer seals. She was sent out by Paul as a teacher and an evangelist. She became a martyr, after miraculously escaping from death many times. As an apostle and teacher St Thekla’s example was a challenge to emerging male authority, but, as she was not mentioned in the New Testament her cult was suppressed by the Western Church. Her influence continued in the East and many images of her were created in the 5th or 6th centuries including on lamps and flasks. She has a shrine in Turkey and her substantial shrine and monastery in Syria survived until the Taliban arrived.

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