Among the martyrs of Christian Antiquity, few figures have crossed the centuries with as much power as Saint Perpetua, a young woman of noble birth, mother of an infant, fervent catechumen, and heroic witness of the faith at the heart of the persecutions of the Roman Empire. Her death, shared with her friend Saint Felicity and several fellow martyrs, remains one of the best-documented accounts of the period, and one of the most moving.
Relics of Saint Perpetua at Relics.es
The text known as the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, written in part by Perpetua herself, is a unique testimony: it is one of the rare writings of early Christianity in an autobiographical style, and one of the very first texts attributed to a woman. This precious document offers direct access to the emotions, mystical visions, and inner struggles of a young Christian woman faced with the inevitable.
This article proposes a complete exploration of Perpetua’s life, from her arrest to her martyrdom, of her visions, her personality, and the immense spiritual echo she has left in Christian history.
The historical context
The situation of the Church at the beginning of the third century
In Perpetua’s time, Christianity is still a minority movement. The communities are organized but often persecuted locally. In 203, the probable date of her martyrdom, the emperor Septimius Severus has not yet launched a generalized persecution, but religious and political tensions are high in Roman Africa.
Carthage, a great metropolis of North Africa, is then a flourishing cultural center. It is also a region where Christianity is spreading rapidly, which eventually draws the attention of the authorities.
The place of women in the African Church
Contrary to certain prejudices, women play a key role in African Christianity:
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some are catechists;
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others serve the community through hospitality and charity;
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many live the faith in the family, transmitting Christ’s message to their children.
Perpetua stands in this heritage. The fact that she wrote a spiritual text shows that the African tradition recognized the value and the voice of believing women.
Perpetua’s personal life
A young noblewoman
Perpetua comes from a well-off family, probably of municipal rank. Her father, a fervent pagan, exercises strong moral authority within the family. She, on the other hand, has turned to Christianity, probably influenced by friends and catechist teachers such as Saturus.
Perpetua is married – the name of her husband has not been preserved – and she is the mother of a very young child still being breast-fed. This central fact makes her testimony all the more poignant.
The shock of conversion
Perpetua embraced the faith in full awareness. Her decision to become a Christian deeply wounds her father, who sees this religion as a social danger. The conversations they have in prison illustrate this family rift:
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the father wants to save his daughter,
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Perpetua wants to save her soul.
This inner conflict runs through the entire story and highlights the spiritual determination of the young woman.
The arrest and imprisonment
The group of martyrs
Perpetua is arrested together with:
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Felicity, a young slave eight months pregnant;
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Saturus, their catechist master;
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Revocatus;
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Saturninus;
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Secundulus, who later died in prison.
The group reflects the diversity of the Church: men and women, free and slaves, educated and uneducated. All are united by a recent baptism and a fervent faith.
The terrible conditions in prison
Perpetua herself describes the first night in prison: the heat, the suffocation, the brutality of the guards, the chains that are too heavy. Mentally she collapses, until she is allowed to keep her child with her.
The presence of her baby transforms her ordeal: she immediately regains strength and inner peace. This scene became one of the most famous passages of her Passion.
The pressure from her father
Her father comes several times to beg her:
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“Have pity on your child!”
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“Think of your family!”
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“Renounce your faith!”
With every visit, he breaks down in tears, grasps her hands, and shows her his distress. Perpetua remains unshakeable but deeply moved. She writes:
“It was I who wept for my father’s old age.”
The psychological depth of the text still impresses modern historians.
The trial
The hearing before the procurator Hilarianus
The Roman tribunal demands only one thing: apostasy.
The judicial ritual consists in “sacrificing to the gods of Rome and to the emperor.” For a Christian, this act is unthinkable.
When her father intervenes, shouting, he is beaten severely. Perpetua recounts the scene with profound sorrow.
Perpetua’s response
When Hilarianus orders her to sacrifice, she answers:
“I am a Christian.”
This is an act of self-condemnation. The authorities do not need to prove anything: this simple declaration is enough.
Perpetua is condemned to be thrown to the beasts in the amphitheatre, on the occasion of the imperial games in honour of Geta, the emperor’s son.
Perpetua’s visions
It is these visions that have made Perpetua unique in Christian literature. They connect mysticism, theology, and psychology, and are among the earliest visionary accounts by a woman in history.
The ladder to heaven
In her first vision, Perpetua sees an immense ladder stretching up to heaven, surrounded by sharp weapons. At the bottom, a threatening dragon. She tramples on the dragon’s head and climbs up.
At the top she finds a radiant garden where a shepherd gives her cheese as a sign of peace.
It is a vision of salvation, a sign that she will conquer evil and attain eternal life.
The gladiator’s struggle
In another vision, she sees herself fighting in the form of a gladiator. She is victorious with God’s help.
This vision foreshadows her spiritual struggle in the arena.
Prayer for her little brother Dinocrates
Perpetua prays for Dinocrates, her brother who died as a child in great suffering. In a vision, she first sees him sad and thirsty, unable to reach the water of a fountain.
After her repeated prayers, she sees Dinocrates healed, smiling, and drinking abundantly.
This scene is one of the earliest testimonies to prayer for the dead in Christian tradition.
Felicity: a parallel martyrdom
Childbirth in prison
Felicity, pregnant, fears that she will not be executed with her companions (the law forbids putting a pregnant woman to death). She prays intensely.
A few days before the games, she gives birth to a baby girl in atrocious pain. The jailers mock her:
— “So you cry out now; what will you do when you are thrown to the beasts?”
She answers:
— “It is I who suffer now; there, Someone will suffer in my place, for I shall suffer for Him.”
This episode made her a symbol of courage and spiritual motherhood.
Her daughter will be adopted by a Christian woman of the community.
The martyrdom in the amphitheatre
The entry of the martyrs
The martyrs enter the arena with radiant faces. They sing psalms. Saturus exhorts the crowd to believe in Christ.
The brutality of the scene contrasts sharply with their inner serenity.
The beasts
The men are given over to bears, wild boars, and leopards.
Perpetua and Felicity, for their part, face a furious cow, an animal chosen to symbolize femininity.
The cow violently tosses them, tearing their garments. Perpetua stands up again, adjusts her tunic to cover her modesty, and arranges her hair, “for it was not fitting to die with dishevelled hair, a sign of mourning.”
This simple gesture became a symbol of invincible dignity.
The final death
The final execution is carried out by the sword. The young gladiator charged with killing Perpetua trembles so much that he misses his blow.
Perpetua herself guides the point of the sword to her throat.
This harrowing scene was interpreted as a sign of total inner freedom, the perfect fulfilment of martyrdom.
A unique text in Christian history
An autobiographical document by a woman
The Passion has several contributors:
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Perpetua herself;
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Saturus, who inserts his own account;
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a final editor who reports the execution.
Together they form a text of exceptional humanity, a blend of intimate journal, mystical visions, and martyr narrative.
A rare literary power
Historians and philologists admire:
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the coherence of the narrative,
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the emotional force,
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the simplicity of the style,
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the psychological depth.
The text is not merely a chronicle: it is a major literary work of Christian Antiquity.
The cult of Saint Perpetua
Venerated since the third century
Very early on, the Christians of Roman Africa recorded her story. Tertullian, a contemporary of the martyrdom, bears witness to the popularity of the account.
The martyrs are buried in the environs of Carthage, where a lasting cult develops.
In the liturgy
Perpetua and Felicity are mentioned in:
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the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I),
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the ancient calendars,
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the Roman Martyrology.
They are among the rare women who, along with Cecilia and Agnes, appear there with such marked honour.
Models of faith
Perpetua embodies:
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female courage,
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sanctified motherhood,
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fidelity to Christ,
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dignity in suffering,
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the power of hope.
She is one of the saints most often represented in African, Italian, and Iberian art.
Spiritual heritage
Perpetua, symbol of Christian witness
Her life illustrates the word of Christ:
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”
She represents the victory of faith over fear, of hope over cruelty, of light over barbarity.
Motherhood and holiness
The inner struggle between maternal love and religious fidelity makes Perpetua a profoundly moving symbol. She shows that martyrdom is not madness, but an act of absolute hope.
A saint for modern times
In our age marked by individualism, Perpetua reminds us of:
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moral courage,
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inner coherence,
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the value of truth,
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the strength of spiritual convictions.
Her story touches believers and non-believers alike through its universal human dimension.
Procession of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity in Carthage on 7 March 1901
According to the tradition of Berry, the relics of Saint Perpetua, martyred on 7 March 203, were transferred in 439 to Rome, and from there, in 843, by the archbishop of Bourges, Raoul, to the Abbey of Dèvres (or Deuvre) at Saint-Georges-sur-la-Prée. After this abbey was sacked by the Normans in 903, it was transferred to Vierzon in 926, and the relics of Saint Perpetua with it, to the site of the present Town Hall. From there these relics were again transferred to the church of Notre-Dame de Vierzon in 1807, where they are preserved today. Perpetua is the patron saint of Vierzon and, since her martyrdom, is invoked for the protection of herds of cattle.
Saint Perpetua remains one of the most fascinating, powerful, and radiant figures of ancient Christianity. A young noblewoman, mother, writer, visionary, martyr, she left a mark that no persecution has been able to erase.
Her intimate journal, miraculously preserved, is one of the oldest women’s writings in human history and one of the most poignant testimonies to faith lived out to the total gift of self.
More than eighteen centuries after her death, Perpetua still speaks with a strong, clear, resolute voice, inviting each person to live with courage, with conviction, and with an inner freedom that no power of this world can chain.
"Les Actes des Martyrs de Sainte Perpétue et Sainte Félicité" dans Les Actes des Martyrs par Louis-Marie de Lagrange. Éditions des Abbaye de Solesmes, 2009.
"Saintes Perpétue et Félicité : Témoignages et Tradition" dans Histoire du Christianisme par François de Menestrier. Éditions du Cerf, 2012.
"Reliques de Sainte Perpétue : Histoire et Vénération" sur Relics.es (consulté le 24 août 2024).
"Le Culte des Saints à Carthage et à Rome" par Pierre-Jean de Cléophas. Éditions de l'Université de Paris, 2007.
"Les Reliques de Sainte Perpétue à Vierzon : Histoire et Tradition" dans Archives Historiques de Vierzon par Jacques Delacroix. Éditions Vierzoniennes, 1995.
