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Perpetua and Felicity ( la, Perpetua et Felicitas) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd 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, an enslaved 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 area of Africa in the
Roman province of Africa Africa Proconsularis was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, ...
(now known as Tunisia). ''
The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity ''The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity'' ( la, Passio sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis) is a diary by Vibia Perpetua describing her imprisonment as a Christian in 203, completed after her death by a redactor. It is one of the oldest and ...
'' narrates their death. According to the passion narrative, five people were arrested and executed at the military games in celebration of the Emperor Septimius Severus's birthday. Along with Felicitas and Perpetua, these included two free men, Saturninus and Secundulus, and an enslaved man named Revocatus; all were catechumens or Christians being instructed in the faith but not yet baptized. To this group of five was added a further man named Saturus, who voluntarily went before the magistrate and proclaimed himself a Christian. Perpetua's first person narrative was published posthumously as part of the Passion.


Imprisonment

Perpetua's account opens with conflict between her and her father, who wishes her to 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. 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. Perpetua described bodily ailments in detail and the most common in her narrative was the cycle of pain and relief she would feel in her breasts. At the encouragement of her brother, Perpetua asks for and receives a vision, in which she climbs a dangerous ladder to which various weapons are attached. At the foot of a ladder is a serpent, which is faced first by Saturus and later by Perpetua. The serpent does not harm her, and she ascends to a garden. At the conclusion of her dream, Perpetua realizes that the martyrs will suffer. The day before her martyrdom, Perpetua envisions herself defeating a savage Egyptian and interprets this to mean that she would have to do battle not merely with wild beasts but with the Devil himself.


Veneration

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 Felicitas has been found. Saints Felicitas and Perpetua are among the martyrs commemorated by name in the Roman
Canon of the Mass The Canon of the Mass ( la, Canon Missæ), also known as the Canon of the Roman Mass and in the Mass of Paul VI as the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I, is the oldest anaphora used in the Roman Rite of Mass. The name ''Canon Missæ'' was used in ...
. The
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...
of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, 7 March, was celebrated across the Roman Empire and was entered in the Philocalian Calendar, the 4th-century calendar of martyrs venerated publicly in Rome. When Saint Thomas Aquinas's feast was inserted into the Roman calendar, for celebration on the same day, the two African saints were thenceforth only commemorated. The Tridentine Calendar, established by Pope Pius V, continued to commemorate the two until the year 1908, when
Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
brought the date for celebrating them forward to 6 March. In the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas was moved, and that of Saints Perpetua and Felicity was restored to their traditional 7 March date. Other Churches, including the
Lutheran Church Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
and the Episcopal Church, commemorate these two martyrs on 7 March, never having altered the date to 6 March. The
Anglican Church of Canada The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...
, however, historically commemorated them on 6 March ('' The Book of Common Prayer'', 1962), but have since changed to the traditional 7 March date (
Book of Alternative Services The ''Book of Alternative Services'' (''BAS'') is the contemporary, inclusive-language liturgical book used in place of the 1962 ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) in most parishes of the Anglican Church of Canada. Further reading * Webster, John, ...
, 1985). Perpetua and Felicity are
remembered Recall in memory refers to the mental process of retrieval of information from the past. Along with encoding (memory), encoding and storage (memory), storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: ...
in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church on 7 March. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the feast day of Saints Perpetua of Carthage and the catechumens Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus, and Felicitas is
1 February Events Pre-1600 *1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. *1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monas ...
.


See also

*
Domnina, Berenice, and Prosdoce Saint Domnina and her daughters Berenice (Bernice, Veronica, Verine, Vernike) and Prosdoce are venerated as Christian martyrs by the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe ...
* List of Christian women of the patristic age


References

{{Authority control 2nd-century births 203 deaths Saints duos Saints from Roman Africa (province) Ante-Nicene Christian female saints 3rd-century Christian saints Groups of Christian martyrs of the Roman era 3rd-century Christian martyrs 2nd-century Roman women Felicity 3rd-century Roman women Carthaginian women Executed ancient Roman women Anglican saints