The novelist Frédéric Gros tells the story of the fabulous destiny of Theoklïa, a forgotten martyr.

Your novel tells the story of Paul of Tarsus on a mission in Anatolia, walking hard, haranguing and evangelizing the crowds. And in particular a young aristocrat, Theoklïa… Why this story?

I wanted to reconstruct this Christianity on the march of the 1st century, with its extremely crude conditions. What a crazy adventure this preaching of Paul, this little man who will change the history of the world with a word and a walking stick! He attracts crowds but always ends up being expelled, because he disrupts Jewish tradition and the Roman order, by calling into question property, wealth, marriage. I had read by chance an apocryphal Christian text (i.e. not retained by the Christian canon, Editor’s note) over this period: The Acts of Paulalso called The Acts of Paul and Thecla . It tells the story of Paul’s conversion of an Anatolian aristocrat, Theoklïa (Thecla), and her extraordinary destiny. This story enchanted me with its dramatic, romantic side.

What is it?

Daughter of a noble family from Iconimum, today Konya (in Anatolia), Theoklïa is promised to a marriage of convenience, which she refuses with all her might. Listening to Paul preach, she decides to follow him and remain pure. Paul does not really know how to behave with her, her exaltation frightens him – while he too is quite exalted! – and the notables quickly condemn her. But she resists the stake, then the lions. Friend of the cousin of the Roman emperor Claudius, she baptizes herself – because Paul, apparently terrified, does not dare to do so – and receives the support of women. She is the first Christian female martyr and many churches are built in her name in the East. Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Ambrose or Saint Augustine, cite her. She appears alongside Paul on the fresco of the cave of Ephesus (6th century fresco, Editor’s note) .

How do you explain this?

I found this blank revealing. Saint Paul does not quote her, but in the epistle to the Galatians, that is to say the one addressed to this people among whom he would have met Theoklïa, we find the famous formula: “there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free”. The ambivalence of nascent Christianity, through its first missionaries, with regard to the role of women is already there. What wonderful breeding ground for a novel!

Precisely, how did you construct your novel from this apocryphal story?

This text was my basis. I also used scholarly works of archaeology and ancient history, biographies of Saint Paul, the Epistles – which I read in Greek. And then I embroidered. Theoklïa’s quote: “I will raise up the people of women for you” is mine! What is written in the apocrypha is that at the time of the martyrs, women supported her against men.

Why did you title your book “The First Story”?

This is the thesis of some scholars, such as Salomon Reinach, a specialist in Christian history, who consider that this apocryphal account is the first Christian account, because it was written in the 50s to 70s of our era. Others say that it was written rather at the end of the 2nd century by communities of widows who wanted to organize themselves. In any case, it is a story linked to the place of women in the Church. I think that at that time they occupied a predominant, powerful place, which went beyond what the leaders of Christian communities could accept.

Has Theoklïa been hidden by the Christian West?

Western tradition seems to have forgotten it… or disqualifies it. For example, the theologian Tertullian, who lived in the 2nd century, explains that women who use the story of Theoklïa to claim to be teachers are condemnable, because this story is a fraud. That said, it was still celebrated in the Christian calendar until 1968 and is celebrated every September in Tarragona, Spain. (city of which Saint Thecla is the patron saint, Editor’s note) because a relic of his arm was supposedly kept there!

What is your relationship with faith?

Today, I would call myself a Christian anarchist, even if it took me a while, but not a Catholic. I find myself in figures like Simone Weil or Jacques Ellul. Faith for me represents a challenge more than a certainty. With this novel, I wanted to find a form of raw Christianity…