Perpetua

Perpetua (born c. 182—died March 7, 203, Carthage [now a residential suburb of Tunis, Tunisia]; feast day March 7) was a Christian martyr who wrote The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, a journal recounting her trial and imprisonment that was continued by a contemporary who described Perpetua’s death in the Roman arena. Both her martyrdom and its account have been highly revered by ancient and modern Christians. Her text is one of the rare surviving documents written by a woman in the ancient world.

Carthage in the 2nd century ce had a vibrant Christian community that included the Church Father Tertullian. Among those drawn to the growing church was a young mother, Perpetua, the daughter of a prosperous provincial family. Sometime after 201, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus forbade conversion to Christianity or Judaism, and in 203 the governor of Carthage, Hilarian, enforced this edict. Perpetua and four companions were arrested. In clear violation of the emperor’s edict, all five were catechumens (people preparing for baptism). Another Christian voluntarily joined the small group. The six were tried, refused to renounce their faith, and were condemned to death in the arena.

Perpetua began her diary with an account of her imprisonment and continued it with descriptions of her trial and her father’s impassioned but fruitless plea for her to renounce her Christian identity. Most of Perpetua’s text concerns her prison dreams (which she believed were prophetic) offering visions of her entry into heaven, her deceased younger brother Dinocrates, and her ordeal in the arena. On the evening before her scheduled death, Perpetua gave her diary to another Christian, who then continued the story of the martyrdom of Perpetua and her fellow Christians. He described how one of Perpetua’s companions—an enslaved pregnant woman named Felicity—gave birth while in prison; he also wrote of the young Christians’ bravery in the arena when they were attacked by wild beasts and, finally, of Perpetua’s voluntary acceptance of death by the sword.

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Perpetua’s diary was read annually in Carthage’s churches for centuries. It was so influential that it was praised by orthodox Christians and heretical Montanists alike, and 200 years later the St. Augustine (354–430) wrote sermons commenting on the young martyr’s words. Perpetua’s text, with its powerful, personal voice, continues to draw readers.