Famous Early Christian Women: Key Figures

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

From the very beginning of the movement, Christian women played vital roles as disciples, patrons, missionaries, teachers, martyrs, and saints. Yet their contributions have often been overshadowed by the stories of their male counterparts, and in many cases, the historical record is frustratingly sparse.

In this article, I'll examine several of the most influential women of early Christianity—from biblical figures to celebrated saints. I’ll also tell you what historians can confidently say about their lives, where the evidence becomes uncertain, and why these remarkable Christian women continue to occupy such an important place in church history.

If this topic interests you, by the way, check out Bart Ehrman’s course Must Women Keep Silent? featuring Dr. Travis Proctor.

Tradition vs. History

Unfortunately, in many cases there is very little actual information about early Christian women. We’ll see this, for instance, in women to whom Paul briefly refers in his letters. However, even in those cases, a fair amount of history can be inferred from their literary and historical context.

On the other hand, other early Christian women, those not found in the Bible but classified as saints, are likely a combination of history and pious legend. Their stories are called hagiographies, by the way, from the Greek words hágios, meaning “holy” and graphía, meaning “writing.” Nevertheless, we’ll do our best here to tease apart history from legend in the stories of these prominent early Christian women.

Mary Magdalene

Given her apparent prominence in the early church, it’s surprising that the Gospels don’t tell us more details about Mary Magdalene. Still, we can learn some important things about her from these references. Take a look at this passage from Luke, for instance:

What do we know about Mary from this passage? First of all, the author says that Mary had been possessed by seven demons and, presumably, healed by Jesus. In Mary Magdalene: A Biography, Bruce Chilton writes that this could mean that Mary had to suffer seven separate exorcisms, the first six being only partially effective. On the other hand, Bart Ehrman argues that the number seven may be merely symbolic in this passage, reflecting the Jewish tradition that seven was a number signifying completion. However, since, as Ehrman notes, demons in the ancient world were believed to cause physical and/or psychological problems, it is possible, then, that Mary underwent some kind of emotional or psychological trauma that ancient people interpreted as demonic possession. We can surmise, then, that her loyalty to Jesus as her healer must have therefore been quite ardent.

The passage also says that the women mentioned supported Jesus and his disciples “out of their own resources.” This might mean that Mary Magdalene had her own income—an inheritance, perhaps, although it’s impossible to know the actual source.

In addition, while one of the women mentioned is called the wife of King Herod’s steward, no husband is mentioned with Mary Magdalene. This could mean that Mary was, in some sense, single—either widowed, divorced, or never married.

Most of the other Gospel references to Mary are related to Jesus’ crucifixion and/or resurrection. Matthew and John both say that Mary Magdalene, along with several other women, was present at Jesus’ crucifixion, indicating that she was a devoted follower of Jesus. Whether her presence at the cross is historically true or not, early traditions about Mary certainly pointed to her dedication to Jesus.

Just as significant, though, is her presence at Jesus’ resurrection. In fact, she is one of the first people to see the resurrected Jesus, alone in the Gospel of John, but with other women in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus then tells her to go tell the apostles, which led to her being called “the apostle to the apostles” in some texts, since the word apostle in Greek means “one who is sent.”

What does all this tell us about how ancient Christians viewed Mary? If indeed Mary was believed to be among the first to see the resurrected Jesus, she must have been considered very prominent in the Jesus movement. In fact, Ehrman points out that in a way, Mary Magdalene could be considered the first apostle since she is sent by Jesus to tell the good news to the disciples.

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Junia

The last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans contains several personal greetings from Paul to specific people. However, one greeting in particular would stand out in later translations. The original text says

Why is this specific greeting significant, and what does it tell us about women apostles? In Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene, Bart Ehrman notes that while information on these two people is scant, “we do know that one of them [Junia] was a woman and that she was an apostle and a pre-eminent one at that.” This was never in doubt for most of biblical history. However, Ehrman goes on to note that some modern English translations of the Bible changed the name “Junia,” a woman’s name, to “Junia,” a man’s name, because they believed it impossible for a woman to have attained the status of an apostle.

However, note that not only does Paul call Junia an apostle, but also says that she and Andronicus are “prominent among the apostles.” What would Paul have meant by this phrase?

In his book  Junia: The First Woman Apostle, Eldon Jay Epp notes that Paul himself defines what being an apostle means. It involves encountering the risen Jesus (1 Cor 9:1; Gal 1:1, 15 17), receiving the command from Jesus to preach the Gospel (Rom 1:1 5; 1 Cor 1:1; Gal 1:1,15 17), and enduring the difficulties of mission work, as well as “signs and wonders, and mighty works” (1 Cor 15:9 10; 2 Cor 12:11 12). Epp therefore notes that

In other words, despite the paucity of information about Junia, we can safely assume that the notoriously strict Paul saw her as deserving of her role as an apostle. In addition, this makes it clear that for Paul, being a woman was no impediment to apostleship.

Phoebe

Like Junia, Phoebe is mentioned only once in the New Testament, specifically in Romans 16:1–2:

One sign of how important Phoebe must have been in the church at Cenchreae is that Paul trusted her to deliver his letter to the Roman church. How do we know this? Paul starts the personal greetings, a common convention of the closing of letters in the Roman world, by introducing Phoebe. According to John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, this signifies that Phoebe had been entrusted with carrying the letter directly to Rome, and most scholars agree. Such letter-bearers in the ancient Roman world were also responsible for helping to explain the letter to its recipients.

But Phoebe was more than simply a letter-carrier. Paul also calls her a deacon (Greek: diakonos). This word, before Christianity, had several meanings, including “servant” and “messenger.” However, in the HarperCollins Study Bible, Leander Keck writes that by the time of Paul’s writing (57–58 CE), the word deacon probably signified a recognized leadership role in the church, although there was no clerical office in Paul’s time.

Finally, Paul calls Phoebe a patron (Greek: prostatis) as well. This suggests that she was a woman of means who used her resources, as well as her social connections, to safeguard and support her local church, which may also have met in her house.

While it would be nice if we had more information about Phoebe, it’s clear from the available evidence that she was a leader in the early church.

Catherine of Alexandria

As we move out of the realm of biblical references and into that of hagiographies, we also encounter greater difficulties discerning the historical truth in the stories of some early Christian women. While we have a lot more information from these biographies than we have about Junia or Phoebe, the nature of that information makes it historically suspect. This is the case with an early Christian saint known as Catherine of Alexandria.

According to tradition, Catherine (or Katherine) of Alexandria, was the daughter of the governor of Alexandria, Egypt. She was apparently very bright and dedicated to learning. However, although her parents were devotees of Roman gods, Catherine, at a very young age, had a vision of the Virgin Mary and Child, which convinced her to convert to Christianity.

When the persecutions of Christians began under the Emperor Maxentius, she went directly to the Emperor and reproached him for his cruelty. The Emperor summoned 50 pagan philosophers to debate with her, but Catherine won the debate. In fact, several of her opponents were convinced by her arguments to become Christians and were therefore immediately executed.

The emperor then tortured Catherine and imprisoned her. Legends say a dove from heaven fed her, and that Christ encouraged her to continue enduring for his sake. Meanwhile, more than 200 people visited her in prison, including Maxentius' wife. All converted to Christianity and were quickly martyred.

Maxentius finally condemned Catherine to be beheaded. Legends say a milk-like substance flowed from her neck instead of blood.

How much of this can be historically verified? Well, Maxentius does not appear to have actively persecuted Christians during most of his reign. This makes it highly unlikely that Maxentius tortured and executed Catherine for being a Christian. The rest of Catherine’s story is all but impossible to verify. In fact, in her book The Cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in Early Medieval Europe, Christine Walsh is highly skeptical about the historicity of Catherine’s hagiography:

Despite this, Catherine of Alexandria has proven to be an inspirational figure in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. In Catholicism, for instance, she is the patron saint of lawyers, librarians, philosophers, students, and teachers.

Helena of Constantinople

In the history of Christianity, few political figures are as significant as the emperor Constantine. As the first Christian emperor, he made Christianity legal and forbade further persecution of Christians. 

However, Constantine’s mother, Helena (sometimes called Helen) of Constantinople is a significant Christian figure as well. She was undoubtedly a historical person, although legends have grown around her activities for the faith.

In his book, Helena Augusta, Jan Willem Drijvers provides evidence to support her year of birth. The author writes that since church historian Eusebius of Caesarea says Helena was about 80 on her return from Palestine in 326–328 CE, she was likely born between 246 and 249 CE. Sources almost universally suggest that she came from the lower classes.

The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius, the father of Constantine, is impossible to determine with any certainty. According to Paul Stephenson, some ancient sources call Helena Constantius' wife, while others call her his concubine. Either way, when Constantine was a child, Constantius left Helena in order to marry someone of a higher social class commensurate with his rising political ambitions.

When Constantine was proclaimed emperor in 306 after Constantius had died, Helena, who had all but disappeared from public life, returned to it in 312. Sources differ on whether Helena was a Christian before her son converted or whether, as Eusebius says, Constantine himself converted her.

Either way, around 326–328, Helena undertook a massive trip to Palestine. According to Eusebius, during this trip, she ordered either the construction or remodeling of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives. Moreover, according to Drijvers, after discovering a temple to Venus on the site of Christ’s tomb, Helena ordered it destroyed and chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The earliest detailed account of the discovery, by the way, comes after Eusebius, principally in ancient church histories by authors such as Socrates Scholasticus, Sozomen, and Theodoret.

In order to discover which of these was the True Cross of Jesus, Helena had a dying woman brought to the site. When this woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition remained unchanged, but when she touched the third and final cross she was suddenly healed, leading Helena to declare that this was the True Cross.

While Helena’s existence can certainly be verified, the historicity of her discovery of the True Cross and other such miraculous discoveries cannot. Helena died around the year 330 with Constantine at her side.

Thecla

With Thecla, we are most likely in the realm of legend again. Why is this? Because, apart from the hagiography based on her life, The Acts of Paul and Thecla written in the 2nd-century, there is no concrete evidence of her existence. However, this didn’t stop her from having a striking influence on early Christians.

The Acts of Thecla, which either began as part of the larger Acts of Paul, or was incorporated into that text later, first introduces Thecla as the daughter of a woman named Theocleia. Thecla is engaged to an influential official named Thamyris within the city of Iconium in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). However, after hearing Paul preach about the necessity of total celibacy in order to attain salvation, Thecla rejects both the marriage and her family to follow Paul on his preaching tour. In response, Thamyris has Paul arrested. Thecla, however, still refuses to marry, so she is sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Nevertheless, God miraculously saves her from martyrdom and she goes on to follow Paul. However, when they arrive in the city of Antioch, a wealthy man named Alexander is drawn to Thecla and offers Paul money for her. Paul claims not to know her, which leads Alexander to try to take Thecla violently. Thecla fights off his advances, however, and assaults him. For this, she is arrested again. Again, however, in an astonishing series of events, including Thecla baptizing herself in a pool of ravenous seals into which she’s been thrown, God saves her. She is then reunited with Paul, who authorizes her to teach the Gospel. Which, if any, parts of this story are historical?

According to Bart Ehrman, there are several reasons to doubt the story’s historicity. First, the Paul in Thecla’s story insists on total sexual abstinence for anyone who wants to be saved. Paul never said this in his undisputed letters. He did write that he believed that celibacy was the better mode of life, since it would be best to devote oneself entirely to the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 7). However, he also said it was better for people to have spouses than to commit fornication.

In addition to this, a 2nd-century author named Tertullian claimed that The Acts of Paul and Thecla was written spuriously by a presbyter from Asia Minor who was then defrocked after confessing his authorship. In other words, Tertullian says the story was fictional.

Despite this, the large number of manuscripts of The Acts of Paul and Thecla in different languages, including Greek, Syriac, Armenian, Latin, Coptic, and Ethiopic, demonstrate that it was widely read in the ancient world. Some early Church fathers, meanwhile, referred to Thecla as a good example for Christians. For instance, 4th-century theologian Gregory of Nyssa said Thecla was a model Christian. That was because she sacrificed herself, “dying” to the world through her asceticism. Another Christian author, Macarius Magnes, wrote of how the message of Christianity was "the sword, (Matt 10:34)” which cuts family members off from each other, “as it cut Thecla from Theocleia."

Whether she was a historical figure or not, Thecla is venerated as a saint in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Additionally, in Maaloula, Syria, a Greek Orthodox convent, the Convent of Saint Thecla was built near a cave that is traditionally said to be her tomb. It remains a pilgrimage site.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember that from its earliest days, Christianity had many notable members who were women. These included church leaders like deacons, and even those who were granted the highest status in the early church, apostles.

While historians don’t have nearly as much information about these women as they would like, there are certainly enough clues in early Christian texts to tell us about the importance of women in the Jesus movement. We know, for instance, that Mary Magdalene had a place of prominence in the early church as evidenced by the stories of her as among the first to encounter the risen Jesus. We also know that Paul had great respect and love for Phoebe, a deacon and patron of a local church group and for Junia, whom he called “prominent among the apostles.”

Even women whose historicity is far from certain garnered the respect and devotion of faithful Christians based on the strength and persistence in the face of adversity described in their hagiographies. This applies to Catherine of Alexandria, as well as Thecla.

Finally, there are those, such as Helena of Constantinople, who were real, historical figures but whose stories may have gradually taken on legendary features such as the discovery of the True Cross. These women used their time, talents, and resources to support the early church.  Modern-day Christians should remember why they were so honored and admired in the early church.