With news of [Abu Jafar's] death, other news has come to light. The Lebanese Calam reported on January 13 that “jihadists plundered the grave of Saint Thekla”. According to Father Makarios Gulwma, secretary of the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East for the Catholic Melkites told RIA Novosti: “The fighters of Al-Nusra and Free Sham removed the bells of the churches of historic Maaloula, torched the iconostasis of the Orthodox Monastery of St Thekla as well as the Melklite Catholic Monastery of Saint Sergius, and they plundered the grave of St. Thekla after digging it up. They burned all the crosses and destroyed them.” The same witness complained that they stole the bronze statue of the enthroned Jesus adorning the Monastery erected by the Orthodox Foundation of Saint Paul of Syria.HT Akma Adam on Facebook. Much more on Maaloula (Ma'loula, Malula) here and here and many links. Until its recent plundering by Jihadis in the Syrian civil war, it was known as one of the last places where Aramaic was still a spoken language.
Thecla is best known through the stories in the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. More on her and the Acts here.
Cross file under "Aramaic Watch."
