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Pilgrimage of Etheria

Egeria, tr. McClure and Feltoe, 1919

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9. The Lives of the Saints

Besides these frequent references to the Bible lessons which describe the places she visited and the actions of holy men which are there connected with them, Etheria on p. 43 mentions in set terms the Acts of S. Thecla, as having been read by her or to her, when she was at Seleucia. Her story, which is closely connected with that of S. Paul, is referred to by Tertullian, de Bapt. c. 17, about A.D. 200, as well as by Hilary of Poictiers and Jerome in the fourth century. The Acts of Paul and Thecla were, at one time, almost looked upon as included in the Canon.¹ At Edessa also she read besides the usual (Bible?) lessons “some things concerning S. Thomas himself” (p. 32). It is not certain what the reference here is. The well-known “Acts of Thomas” were a Gnostic document, not specially connected with Edessa nor at all likely to be used by the orthodox Etheria. The earlier legend made out that S. Thomas the Apostle sent Thaddeus to Edessa, the later version identified the two. Probably what Etheria read was either the Doctrina Apostolorum or the Doctrina Addaei or the (Greek) Acta Thaddaei.²

So, again, in connexion with what the bishop had quoted for her benefit at Haran (Charrae), she tells her beloved sisters that her informants were always most careful to quote from and she to listen to only the most reliable stories, whether from the scriptures themselves or from the gesta mirabilia of holy men (i. e. ascetae),³ some of whom were dead and some still alive (p. 39).

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