The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity · §20 · Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Perpetua covers herself and lifts Felicity

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The redactor narrates Perpetua and Felicity as they are sent out to face the cow in the public games.

For the young women the devil prepared a most ferocious cow, procured contrary to custom, because he envied their sex even in respect of the wild beast. They were led out stripped and dressed in nets. The crowd shuddered to look at one delicate girl and the other fresh from childbirth with dripping breasts. So they were called back and dressed in loose ungirded clothes.

Perpetua was tossed first and fell on her hips. As she sat, she drew her tunic, torn at the side, across to cover her thigh, mindful of modesty rather than pain. Then she asked for a pin and fastened up her scattered hair. For it was not fitting for a martyr to suffer with loose hair, lest she seem to be mourning in her glory. So she stood up, and when she saw Felicity crushed to the ground, she went to her and gave her a hand and raised her. And the two stood together. And when the hardness of the people was overcome, they were recalled to the Sanavivaria Gate.

There Perpetua was received by a man named Rusticus, then a catechumen, who stayed close to her, and as if woken from sleep — so deeply had she been in spirit and in ecstasy — she began to look around, and as everyone stared in amazement she said, “When are we to be thrown to that cow or whatever it is?” When she heard what had already happened, she did not believe it until she recognized certain marks of the attack on her body and clothing. Then she sent for her brother and that catechumen and spoke to them, saying, “Stand firm in faith and love one another, all of you, and do not be made to stumble by our martyrdoms.”

Latin

Puellis autem ferocissimam uaccam, ideoque praeter consuetudinem comparatam, diabolus praeparauit, sexui earum etiam de bestia aemulatus. Itaque dispoliatae et reticulis indutae producebantur. Horruit populus alteram respiciens puellam delicatam, alteram a partu recentem stillantibus mammis. Ita reuocatae et discinctis indutae. Prior Perpetua iactata est, et concidit in lumbos. Et ubi sedit, tunicam a latere discissam ad uelamentum femoris reduxit, pudoris potius memor quam doloris. Dehinc acu requisita et dispersos capillos infibulauit. Non enim decebat martyram sparsis capillis pati, ne in sua gloria plangere uideretur. Ita surrexit, et elisam Felicitatem cum uidisset, accessit et manum ei tradidit et suscitauit illam. Et ambae pariter steterunt. Et populi duritia deuicta reuocatae sunt in portam Sanauiuariam. Illic Perpetua a quodam tunc catechumino, Rustico nomine, qui ei adhaerebat, suscepta et quasi a somno expergita (adeo in spiritu et in extasi fuerat) circumspicere coepit, et instupentibus omnibus ait: Quando, inquit, proiciemur ad uaccam illam nescio quam? Et cum audisset quod iam euenerat, non prius credidit nisi quasdam notas uexationis in corpore et habitu suo recognouisset. Exinde accersitum fratrem suum, et illum catechuminum, adlocuta est dicens: In fide state et inuicem omnes diligite, et passionibus nostris ne scandalizemini.

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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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