Sts. Perpetua and Felicity

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were martyred together at Carthage in North Africa on March 7, 203, during the persecution under the emperor Septimius Severus. Vibia Perpetua was a well-educated noblewoman of about twenty-two, married and nursing an infant son; Felicity was an enslaved woman, pregnant at the time of her arrest. Both were catechumens—Christians still preparing for baptism—seized with a small group of companions, including their catechist Saturus. Their story is preserved in the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, one of the most precious documents of the early Church, much of it written by Perpetua herself in prison. It is among the earliest surviving Christian texts from the hand of a woman. In it she describes her baptism in custody, her anguish over her child, her pagan father's repeated pleas that she renounce the faith, and the visions that strengthened her—including a ladder to heaven and a combat in which she prevailed, understanding that her true contest was with the devil and victory was assured. Felicity feared she would be left behind, since Roman law forbade executing a pregnant woman, but she gave birth to a daughter two days before the games; a Christian woman took the child as her own. On March 7 the martyrs were led into the amphitheater of Carthage, exposed to wild beasts, and finally put to death by the sword—exchanging, the Passion records, a final kiss of peace. Their fame spread immediately through the churches of Africa and beyond; St. Augustine preached on their feast, and their names were inscribed in the Roman Canon of the Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I), where they are invoked to this day. Venerated since long before formal canonization processes, they are commemorated on March 7 and honored as patrons of mothers and expectant mothers. Tradition places their burial at the Basilica Maiorum in Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, where an ancient inscription bearing their names has been found.