The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity · §13 · Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Pleading leaders reconciled in the rose garden

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Saturus is still telling his own vision of what happened to the martyrs after they were lifted before the throne.

We went out and saw Optatus the bishop to the right of the doors and Aspasius the priest and teacher to the left, standing apart and sorrowful. They threw themselves at our feet and said, "Settle between us, for you have departed and left us behind like this." We answered them, "Are you not our father, and you a priest, that you should throw yourselves at our feet?" We were moved with pity and embraced them. Perpetua began speaking with them in Greek, and we drew them aside into a green garden under a rose tree.

While we were still talking with them, the angels said to them, "Let them alone; let them have relief. And if you have any quarrels among you, forgive one another." They rebuked them, and they said to Optatus, "Correct your people, for they gather around you as if returning from the Circus and quarreling about rival parties." Then it seemed to us as if they meant to shut the doors. There we began to recognize many brothers, and martyrs as well. We were all fed by a fragrance beyond words, and it satisfied us. Then I woke in joy.

Latin

Et exiuimus et uidimus ante fores Optatum episcopum ad dexteram et Aspasium presbyterum doctorem ad sinistram, separatos et tristes. Qui miserunt se ad pedes nobis et dixerunt: Componite inter nos, quia existis et sic nos reliquistis. Et diximus illis: Non tu es papa noster, et tu presbyter, ut uos ad pedes nobis mittatis? Et moti sumus et conplexi illos sumus. Et coepit Perpetua Graece cum illis loqui; et segregauimus eos in uiridiarium sub arbore rosae. Et dum loquimur cum eis, dixerunt illis angeli: Sinite illos, refrigerent; et si quas habetis inter uos dissensiones, dimittite uobis inuicem. Et conturbauerunt eos, et dixerunt Optato: Corrige plebem tuam; quia sic ad te conueniunt quasi de Circo redeuntes et de factionibus certantes. Sic nobis uisum est quasi uellent claudere portas. Et coepimus illic multos fratres cognoscere, sed et martyras. Uniuersi odore inenarrabili alebamur, qui nos satiabat. Tunc gaudens experrectus sum.

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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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