Saint Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs

Perpetua and Felicity (Latin: Perpetua et Felicitas; c. 182 – c. 203) were Christian martyrs of the third century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son she was nursing. Felicity, a slave woman imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity narrates their death. According to this text, five people were arrested and executed in military games to celebrate emperor Septimius Severus's birthday. Along with Felicity and Perpetua, these included two free men, Saturninus and Secundulus, and an enslaved man named Revocatus; all were catechumens (Christians being instructed in the faith but not yet baptized). To this group of five was added a sixth, Saturus, who voluntarily went before the magistrate and proclaimed himself to be Christian. Perpetua's first-person narrative was published posthumously as part of the Passion. Perpetua's account opens with conflict between her and her father, who desires that she recant her belief. Perpetua refuses, and is soon baptized before being moved to prison. Perpetua was imprisoned in Carthage in the days leading up to her martyrdom. She described these days and what she endured in her diary. Perpetua described the physical and emotional torments that she suffered in the prison leading up to her martyrdom or death. Perpetua suffered physically due to the heat, rough prison guards, and the cessation of regular breastfeeding. Perpetua also described how the prison conditions improved after she was able to bribe the guards so that she and the other martyrs were moved to another part of the prison, with her infant. Her physical torment was also eased after she was able to breastfeed her child.