Thecle of Roubaix

Thecle of Roubaix was a virgin, a great benefactress and ascetic of Roubaix in French Flanders, in the 9th century. She is remembered on 20 February. The local historians Jean Cousin and Arnould de Raisse give her the title of pious and blessed.

One night in September 881, in her sleep, the bishop Saint Eleutherius appeared to her and told her to tell Heidilo, bishop of Tournai and Noyon, to go to the village of Blandain and raise from the ground his relics, which he would find near the altar of Saint Peter. Heidilo went there with Thecle, several prelates and abbots, a large part of his clergy and many people of Roubaix, and found the relics. At that moment Thecle, who had been blind for countless years, regained her sight.

Afterwards she did much good through her piety and virtue in Roubaix and its surroundings, especially in the hamlet of Barbieux. She received Holy Communion from the hand of Bishop Heidilo himself. She was buried in the church of Blandain, beside Saint Eleutherius, and her remains were later moved to a chapel of the same church.

She is a local saint of the West; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.