The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity · §11 · Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Carried East to a Garden of Light

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Saturus, the fellow Christian who surrendered himself for the group, now speaks in his own first-person report after Perpetua's diary stops the day before the public games.

Blessed Saturus also published this vision of his, which he wrote out himself. "We had suffered death," Saturus says, "and we had left the flesh, and four angels began to carry us eastward, yet their hands never touched us. We traveled not on our backs with our faces turned upward, but as if we were climbing a gentle slope. Once we had left the first world behind, we saw an immense light, and since Perpetua was at my side I said to her, 'This is what the Lord was promising us. We have received the promise.'"

While those same four angels were still carrying us, a great open space appeared before us, like a garden planted with rose trees and flowers of every kind. The trees stood as tall as cypresses, and their leaves kept falling without ceasing. Four other angels waited there in the garden, brighter than the rest.

When they saw us, they gave honor to us and said in wonder to the other angels, "Here they are! Here they are!" At this the four angels carrying us grew awestruck and set us down. Then we crossed a full stadium on foot by a broad road. There we found Jocundus and Saturninus and Artaxius, who had been burned alive in that same persecution, and Quintus, who had also died in prison as a martyr, and we asked them where the others were. The angels told us, "Come inside first and greet the Lord."

Latin

Sed et Saturus benedictus hanc uisionem suam edidit, quam ipse conscripsit. Passi, inquit, eramus, et exiuimus de carne, et coepimus ferri a quattuor angelis in orientem, quorum manus nos non tangebant. Ibamus autem non supini sursum uersi, sed quasi mollem cliuum ascendentes. Et liberato primo mundo uidimus lucem immensam, et dixi Perpetuae (erat enim haec in latere meo): Hoc est quod nobis dominus promittebat: percepimus promissionem. Et dum gestamur ab ipsis quattuor angelis, factum est nobis spatium grande, quod tale fuit quasi uiridiarium, arbores habens rosae et omne genus flores. Altitudo arborum erat in modum cypressi, quarum folia cadebant sine cessatione. Ibi autem in uiridiario alii quattuor angeli fuerunt, clariores ceteris: qui ubi uiderunt nos honorem nobis dederunt, et dixerunt ceteris angelis: Ecce sunt, ecce sunt, cum admiratione. Et expauescentes quattuor illi angeli, qui gestabant nos, deposuerunt nos. Et pedibus nostris transiuimus stadium uia lata. Ibi inuenimus Iocundum et Saturninum et Artaxium, qui eadem persecutione uiui arserunt, et Quintum, qui et ipse martyr in carcere exierat; et quaerebamus de illis ubi essent ceteri. Dixerunt nobis angeli: Uenite primum intro et salutate dominum.

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About this text

The prison diary of Perpetua, a young mother of Carthage, with the visions of Saturus and an editor's account of how she, the slave woman Felicity and their companions died in the arena in 203.

This account was put together by Perpetua, Saturus, and an unnamed editor. Perpetua wrote her prison diary in her own hand, Saturus wrote his own vision, and the editor arranged and supplemented their words with a beginning and an end. It is addressed to fellow Christians, called brothers and little children, who will hear or read the account in the church.

It was written because new visions and martyrdoms had occurred. The editor holds that they should be written down and read in church like older examples, so that God is honored and faith is strengthened rather than supposing that grace worked only in the past. He argues that recent prophecies, visions, and martyrdoms carry the same authority as ancient ones because the Holy Spirit was promised for the last days and God still acts for believers and against unbelievers.

The reader will meet Perpetua, Felicity, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus, Saturus, Dinocrates, Hilarianus, Tertius and Pomponius, Pudens, Optatus, and Aspasius, with Perpetua and Saturus speaking in the first person and the editor speaking around them. Here martyrdom means suffering from arrest to execution accepted as faithful witness, vision means sleep vision received as promised revelation, to confess Christ means to declare Christian identity before interrogation, wild beasts means the arena animals and the public execution, public games means the imperial birthday show where the sentence is carried out, baptism covers water baptism and blood as a second cleansing wash, relief means release from prison misery and suffering after death, and the devil is the opponent met as dragon, serpent, Egyptian, and cow. The work cites the last days promise of the Spirit in the form found in Acts, given here as Joel 2:28-29 and Acts 2:17-18, with ancient book and divine names in modern form such as Jesus Christ, Felicity, Revocatus, Ceres, Saturn, and Geta Caesar.

Printed text used

Translated from Oscar von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta (Berlin: A. Duncker, 1902) (Latin)

This work has passed our source check. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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