DW | Holy Saints
A document from the early Church called “The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity” was so popular in the North African church that St. Augustine complained that it was more widely read than the Gospels. Perpetua was a prosperous young woman, married and the mother of a newborn son, who lived in Carthage in the late second century. Despite threats of persecution and death, Perpetua, Felicity (a slave and expectant mother), and their companions, Revocatus, Secundulus, Saturninus, Saturus, and Rusticus, refused to renounce their Christian faith. As a result, they were arrested and sent to prison to await trial.
Part of the striking power of this narrative derives from the fact that it represents the voice of Perpetua herself, as she languished in prison under the sentence of death. It is thus a uniquely personal document, filled with painfully intimate details, and strikingly free of the stereotypical conventions of later hagiography. Perpetua emerges not simply as a 'type', but as a fully realized person.
Perpetua's mother was a Christian and her father was a pagan. He continually pleaded with her to deny her faith so she could be free. She writes:
“Father do you see this water jar, or whatever it is, standing here? Could one call it by any other name than what it is? Well, in the same way I cannot be called by any other name than what I am—a Christian.”
The narrative describes in touching detail the sufferings caused by the separation from her infant. But when he is restored to her and she is able to nurse him, “straightway I became well, and was lightened of my labor and care for the child; and suddenly the prison was made a palace for me, so that I would sooner be there than anywhere else.”
Perpetua herself does not relish the prospect of death. But in series of prophetic visions she finds the conviction that her fate is ordained and that her brief suffering will lead to eternal reward. She is consoled finally to be able to entrust her son to safe hands, and so receives the grace to bear whatever may come. She is undeterred when, at their trial, she and her companions receive the most terrifying sentence. All were tried and sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts during a national holiday.
Their deaths would be scheduled along with sports events and various games. In another dream she perceives that she will be fighting not with beasts, but against the devil.
While they were awaiting death, Perpetua and her companions were baptized. Her portion of the narrative ends on a haunting note – the actual words of a prisoner on the eve of her death:
“Thus far have I written this, till the day before the games; but the deed of the games themselves let him write who will.”
Eyewitnesses did complete her narrative. And so we also learn something about her companion and servant Felicity. Eight months pregnant at the time of her imprisonment, Felicity was fearful that because of her condition she would be separated from the fate of her companions, for according to Roman law, she could not be executed before the birth of the child. But after a night of ardent prayer, she went into labor and gave birth to a daughter whom she was able to entrust to Christian friends.
While she was suffering from the pains of childbirth, one of the guards called out to her, "If you are suffering so much now, what will you do when you are thrown to the wild beasts?" "Now I suffer," she answered, "but there Another will be in me, who will suffer for me, because I will suffer for Him."
On their last day of life the prisoners celebrated together with friends and fellow Christians from the local community. The next morning, the day of their victory, the prisoners went forth from the darkness of their prison into the glaring amphitheater, “as it were to heaven, cheerful and bright of countenance.” Once more Perpetua was urged to deny her faith. But she refused. We hear her voice a final time - now with a conviction that resounds through the ages:
“For this cause came we willingly onto this, that our liberty might not be obscured. For this cause have we devoted our lives.”
Perpetua and Felicity were sent into the arena together. At first they were stripped of their clothing, however, they were permitted to cover themselves. They were then the victim of a savage cow which tossed them about on its horns. When they had survived this ordeal, the executioner was ordered to put them to the sword. The swordsman was apparently a novice, and had trouble striking a true blow. The narrator relates that Perpetua, in the final mark of mastery over her fate, directed the sword to her own neck:
“Perhaps so great a woman could not else have been slain had she not herself so willed it.”
As a final note, the narrator reflects that before meeting the sword the two women, formerly mistress and servant, now sisters in Christ, turn to one another before the jeering crowd and exchanged a kiss.
Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded; the others were killed by wild beasts. Today these women are mentioned in the Canon of the Mass in the first Eucharistic Prayer.
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