medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thecla of Kitzingen (d. ca. 790) was an Englishwoman who joined her relative St. Leoba in St. Boniface's missionary enterprise in Germany and whose recollections, passed down to a monk in Germany, became part of Rudolf of Fulda's source material for his Vita of Leoba. Leoba was previously a nun at Wimborne (today's Wimborne Minster in Dorset); Thecla too may have belonged to that house. We first hear of her at today's Tauberbischofsheim in northeastern Baden-Württemberg, where Leoba was abbess at a monastery that functioned as a training center for English missionaries. Later Thecla went on to be abbess of the relatively nearby women's monasteries at Kitzingen and Ochsenfurt in today's Unterfranken in Bavaria. She is one of the three women addressees of a not very informative letter from Boniface (_Ep._ 67), encouraging them and asking for their prayers.
Thecla died at Kitzingen. Her relics were profaned and scattered during the Peasants' War of 1524-25. Today (15. October) is her day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. The diocese of Würzburg keeps her feast on 28. September.
Best,
John Dillon
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