Perpetua of Carthage

Saint Perpetua of Carthage, Martyr, was a young Christian of Carthage, put to death in the year 203; her Passion preserves the notes she kept in prison. She is remembered on 6 March, together with Felicity and their companions in martyrdom.

Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-⁠educated noblewoman, said to have been twenty-⁠two years old at 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 the birthday of Caesar Geta, son of the emperor Septimius Severus: along with Felicity and Perpetua, two free men, Saturninus and Secundulus, and an enslaved man, Revocatus; all were catechumens, that is, being instructed in the faith but not yet baptized. To this group of five a sixth was added, Saturus, who voluntarily went before the magistrate and proclaimed himself a Christian. Perpetua's first-⁠person narrative was published after her death as part of the Passion.

Perpetua's account opens with conflict between her and her father, who wished her to recant her belief. Perpetua refused, and was soon baptized and then moved to prison. In the days leading up to her martyrdom she described in her diary what she endured: the physical suffering from the heat, the rough guards and the stopping of regular nursing, and the suffering of the soul. Conditions improved when 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 torment was also eased once she could nurse her child. At her brother's encouragement Perpetua asks for and receives a vision, in which she climbs a dangerous ladder to which various weapons are attached. At the foot of the ladder is a serpent, faced first by Saturus and later by her. The serpent does not harm her, and she ascends to a garden. At the conclusion of the dream Perpetua realizes that the martyrs will suffer. The day before her martyrdom she sees herself defeating a savage Egyptian and understands that she will have to fight not merely wild beasts but the devil as well.

In Carthage a basilica was erected over the tomb of the martyrs, the Basilica Maiorum, where an ancient inscription bearing the names of Perpetua and Felicity has been found. Saints Felicity and Perpetua are among the martyrs commemorated by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass.