Perpetua and Felicitas, of Tuburbi in Mauritania, and Others

Perpetua and Felicitas were two very pious and honorable Christian women, at Tuburbi, a city in Mauritania, a province of Africa. Both were arrested at a very untimely moment, to suffer for the name of Christ, for Felicitas was very far advanced in pregnancy, and Perpetua had recently given birth to a child, whom she was nursing. But this did not make them fainthearted, nor take them so by surprise that they forsook Christ, nor did it keep them from going on in the way of godliness; they remained faithful disciples of Christ just the same, and became steadfast martyrs.

According to the Roman laws, they waited with a pregnant woman until she had given birth before they sentenced her and put her to death. When the pains of labor seized her in prison, and she cried out aloud in fear and anguish, the jailer said to her:

"You are so much afraid and distressed now, and cry out aloud for pain; how then will you behave when, tomorrow, or the day after, you will be led to death?" [n175-2] Felicitas replied: "Now I suffer as a poor woman the punishment that God, because of sin, has laid upon the female sex; but tomorrow I will suffer as a Christian woman for the faith and the confession of Jesus Christ." By these words she showed plainly enough that she had founded her faith firmly and immovably upon Christ, who never forsakes His own, even though they are in the middle of the fire and are consumed. God also strengthened her in a special way, so that she was able to endure her sufferings. About this, Tertullian says: "Perpetua, that very strong and steadfast martyr, had a revelation, or vision, of the heavenly paradise on the day of her sufferings, in which she saw no one but her fellow martyrs. And why no others? Because the fiery sword that guards the door of paradise gives way to no one but those who die for Christ." In the meantime these two pious heroines of Jesus Christ were martyred, that is, they died a violent death, for the name of their Savior; and for this they will afterward be crowned with the unfading wreath of immortality, as a triumph over the enemies they overcame, namely, the cruelties and pains of death.

The names of their fellow martyrs are Revocatus, Satyrus, Saturninus, and Serundulus. It is thought that the last one named died in prison from extreme hardship, but that the others were all thrown before the wild beasts, such as bulls, lions, bears, leopards, and so on, to be torn by them. So these exchanged their dear lives for death, for Christ's sake. Idem., folio 26, columns 3 and 4, from August. in Psalm 74, and de Tempore Barbdrieo, chapter 5; Beda, Usuard., Ado, Martirol. Rom., 7 Martii. Also, 1. Pregnatis de Pen. Also, in Antiquo Lectionario. Also, Tertull. de anima, chapter 5. [n175-3] That the dead bodies of the two women named above were brought to Carthage and buried there is testified by Victor Uticensis, Pers. Vandal., book 1.