Saint Thecla
Parish church, Judenburg, Austria
Even without the label on the podium the figure's identity as St. Thecla is unmistakeable. As in nearly half of the images I have seen of her, she holds a cross aloft, having been saved by the Sign of the Cross from the fire shown here at her right foot. When the pagans could not burn her, they tried putting her in the arena with wild beasts, represented here by the lion at her left foot, an adaptation of a visual trope seen in other images of the late Middle Ages and later. When that did not work, they tried enraged bulls.
The only attribute missing from the statue is a palm branch, which may once have been in the figure's left hand. Technically she is not a martyr, having survived all the attempts to kill her, but many images give her the palm branch nevertheless.
Read more about images of St. Thecla
Read more about the visual trope of the persecutor underfoot.
Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.
