Thecla of Kitzingen | |
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| Born | southern Britain |
| Died | ~AD 790 Germany |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | 15 October |
SaintThecla of Kitzingen (Tecla of England, Heilga) (died ca. AD 790) was an Anglo-SaxonBenedictinenun,abbess, and missionary. She was among several figures associated withSaint Boniface and theAnglo-Saxon mission.
Sometime after the death ofAldfrith of Northumbria around the year 705, his widow,Cuthburh, the sister of KingIne of Wessex, established a double-monastery in her brother's kingdom atWimborne in Dorset.St. Richard of Wessex was one of the underkings of the West Saxons and married Winna, the sister ofSt. Boniface. Before starting on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his two sons, Richard entrusted his eleven-year-old daughterWalpurga to the abbess of Wimborne.[1] The nuns of Wimborne Abbey educated Walpurga, and she later became a community member.[2] Boniface kept up a frequent correspondence with the community of Wimborne.[3]
Born insouthern Britain, Thecla was a relative ofSaint Lioba. Thecla and Lioba were educated at Wimborne Abbey and later joined the Benedictine community of nuns there. When Boniface wrote to the Abbess Tetta, requesting helpers with his missionary work in Germany, Thecla and Lioba were among those sent.[4] Boniface seems to have had a threefold purpose in summoning these Anglo-Saxon nuns as his auxiliaries: to propagate the full observance of the Benedictine Rule by new foundations, to introduce it into already founded monasteries, and to restore its observance in others, and finally, to bring their gentle influence to bear on the local people, both by example and by the education imparted to their children.[3][5]
In 748, they arrived inBischofsheim ("bishop's place"), where Boniface founded a convent, and Lioba was made abbess. Later, Thecla became abbess ofOchsenfurt.[4] Sometime after 750, upon the death ofHadelonga, foundress and first Abbess ofKitzingen on the Main, she was also called to supervise that abbey.[6]
Herfeast day is 15 October, but alternative feast days of 27 or 28 September also appear in liturgical books.[4] Thecla’s relics were enshrined during theMiddle Ages at Kitzingen but were later dispersed during theGerman Peasants' War.[4] She is also venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Thecla".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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