Tegla

Tegla was a Welsh holy woman of the fifth century, the daughter of Reguli of Gwynedd. She founded Llandegla (Llandegley) in Powys and Llandegla near Ruthin, and is sometimes linked with Capel Tegla near Chepstow. She was known over a wide area for her gift of healing. Her spring in Powys has a high level of sulphur, which may have helped with some illnesses. She is said to have cured Cynan of Gwynedd of a persistent headache after he promised to free prisoners.

It was believed that epilepsy, once called "Tecla's disease", could be cured by a custom performed at Llandegla near Ruthin, recorded by Edward Lhuyd in 1699. The patient took a hen with him, washed hands and feet in the water of the spring, pricked the hen with a pin and threw it into the spring. After paying the keeper of the spring and reciting the Lord's Prayer three times, he walked three times around the church. Then he slept on Friday night under the altar of the church with the hen, with the Bible as a pillow. In the morning he blew into the hen's throat, so that the illness might pass to it. The hen was left in the church, and the treatment succeeded if it died there, not if it was killed. The church was often fuller of hens than of people. The custom lasted until the nineteenth century; in 1935 many pins and bits of brass were found in the spring.

There are two other saints Thecla, of the first century and of the eighth century (Tegla), with whom the present Tegla must not be confused.