Thecla was a female Apostle converted by Paul directly in the 1st century. She survived attempted martyrdom TWICE by miraculous intervention: being burned alive and being killed by beasts. She founded a teaching and healing center in modern day Syria that functioned for 1,000 YEARS and still stands today. It is said that she put the local doctors out of business... While the writings from the first century about her specific story may or may not be wholly accurate, it would not be denied that she was an early apostle and the same figure who founded the Apostolic center mentioned above.
Both Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil of Caesarea spoke of Thecla as a historical figure. Writing in the 300s, they described her teaching center and hospital near Seleucia. The pilgrim Egeria visited this facility in 399 A.D., and also described its monasteries, convents and assembly buildings, along with the teaching and healing ministries that went on there. The German team that excavated the center in 1908 found the apse still standing above the ground, with the main basilica’s outlines covering a space equal to that of a football field. The excavators also found numerous cisterns, apparently for washing the sick, two other churches, and many fine mosaics. The center apparently was in active use for at least 1,000 years, indicating the presence in Asia Minor of an extremely strong female leader.
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