St. Thecla

Happy birthday to me! And happy feast day to St. Thecla. I had never heard of this saint before I did the research for this little project, but hers is one of the juicier stories, I must say. St. Thecla lived in the 1st century and according to the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla knew and was a disciple of the apostle Paul. You can click on the link if you want the full story, but here's the "good parts" version:

1) She broke off her engagement so she could remain chaste. Her fiance got very angry and sued her (well, the 1st century version of suing someone), and she was condemned to burn at the stake. However, when they lit the fire, she didn't burn.

2) She then followed Paul to Antioch where another guy fell in love with her. When she rejected his advances, he also sued her and she was condemned to be fed to wild beasts. When they threw her in the pit with them, however, a vicious lioness turned around and protected her from the other wild beasts, and Thecla survived.

3) She lived the rest of her life in a cave as a hermit. And who can blame her?

So, I immediately pounced on the wild beasts part of the story. My outfit today incorporates as many of them as I could. Plus, for the first time ever, I'm wearing my little lion brooch. I'm not really a brooch-wearing type of girl, but it was just too perfect! I have no idea where it came from, but I've had it for years. Something makes me want to say my Aunt Eileen brought it back from a trip to Mexico, but it wasn't a gift - that I know. I have no idea how I ended up with it. Anyway, here's my picture. I'm playing the part of the lioness: