Abstract This contribution presents three excerpts from a Modern Western Aramaic interview collected in December 2020 in Maaloula, Syria. In the interview, the narrator relates his own biographical details, the legendary life of Thecla, and a personal account of a miraculous healing. The local traditions concerning Thecla feature distinctive motifs, including the miraculous opening of the mountain to admit the saint, the miraculous growth of wheat to deceive her pursuers, and a miraculous spring of water from a rock. These accounts are compared to earlier literary sources, such as the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Life and Miracles of Thecla, as well as prior mwa literature. The analysis highlights how the Maaloulian variants re-inscribe Thecla’s legend onto the local landscape, incorporating motifs that parallel earlier Christian apocrypha and pagan cult practices, such as healing through incubation at the shrine, and identifying mutual influence between Thecla’s legend and those of other saints.
Häberl et al. (2026) studied this question.