Saint Thecla of Kitzingen

Saint Thecla of Kitzingen (died ca. 790 AD) was a Benedictine nun and abbess. Born in England, she went to Germany to assist Saint Boniface in his missionary labors. Born in southern Britain, Thecla was a relative of Saint Lioba. Thecla and Lioba were educated at Wimborne Abbey and later joined the Benedictine community of nuns there. When Boniface wrote the Abbess Tetta, requesting helpers with his missionary work In Germany, Thecla and Lioba were among those sent. Boniface seems to have had a threefold purpose in summoning these Anglo-Saxon nuns as his auxiliaries: to propagate the full observance of the Benedictine Rule by new foundations; to introduce it into already founded monasteries, and to restore its observance in others; and finally to bring their gentle influence to bear on the local people, both by example and by the education imparted to their children. In 748, they arrived in Bischofsheim ("bishop's place") where Boniface founded a convent, and Lioba was made abbess. Later, Thecla became abbess of Ochsenfurt. Sometime after 750, upon the death of Hadelonga, foundress and first Abbess of Kitzingen on the Main, she was called to supervise that abbey as well. Her feast day is 15 October but alternative feast days of 27 or 28 September also appear in liturgical books. During the Middle Ages, Thecla’s relics were enshrined at Kitzingen, but were later dispersed during the German Peasants' War.