The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity · §7 · Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Seeing her brother thirsting and praying for him

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Perpetua, writing her prison diary after condemnation to the wild beasts, turns to her dead little brother Dinocrates.

A few days later, while we were all praying, a voice came forth to me suddenly in the middle of the prayer, and I named Dinocrates. I was stunned that he had never come to my mind except then, and I grieved when I remembered his misfortune. I knew at once that I was worthy and ought to ask on his behalf, and I began to pray long for him and to groan to the Lord.

That very night this was shown to me. I see Dinocrates coming out of a dark place, where many others were also burning with heat and desperately thirsty, in dirty clothing and pale in color, with the wound on his face that he had when he was dying. This Dinocrates had been my brother by blood, seven years old, who died badly of an illness that ate away his face with a sore, so that his death was hateful to all people. So I had prayed for him, and between me and him there was a great gap, so that neither of us could reach the other. In that place where Dinocrates was there was a pool full of water, with a rim higher than the boy was tall, and Dinocrates was stretching up as if he were about to drink. It grieved me that the pool held water, and yet he would not be able to drink because of the height of the rim. Then I awoke, and I knew that my brother was suffering, but I trusted that I would help his suffering, and I prayed for him every day until we were transferred to the military prison, for we were to fight in the military public games at what was then the birthday of Geta Caesar. And I prayed for him day and night, groaning and weeping, that this would be granted to me.

Latin

Post dies paucos, dum uniuersi oramus, subito media oratione profecta est mihi uox et nominaui Dinocraten. Et obstipui quod numquam mihi in mentem uenisset nisi tunc, et dolui commemorata casus eius. Et cognoui me statim dignam esse et pro eo petere debere, et coepi de ipso orationem facere multum et ingemiscere ad dominum. Continuo ipsa nocte ostensum est mihi hoc. Uideo Dinocraten exeuntem de loco tenebroso, ubi et complures erant aestuantes et sitientes ualde, sordido cultu et colore pallido; et uulnus in facie eius, quod cum moreretur habuit. Hic Dinocrates fuerat frater meus carnalis, annorum septem, qui per infirmitatem facie cancerata male obiit, ita ut mors eius odio fuerit omnibus hominibus. Pro hoc ergo orationem feceram; et inter me et illum grande erat diastema, ita ut uterque ad inuicem accedere non possemus. Erat deinde in illo loco ubi Dinocrates erat piscina plena aqua, altiorem marginem habens quam erat statura pueri; et extendebat se Dinocrates quasi bibiturus. Ego dolebam quod et piscina illa aquam habebat, et tamen propter altitudinem marginis bibiturus non esset. Et experrecta sum, et cognoui fratrem meum laborare; sed fidebam me profuturam labori eius et orabam pro eo omnibus diebus quousque transiuimus in carcerem castrensem; munere enim castrensi eramus pugnaturi: natale tunc Getae Caesaris. Et feci pro illo orationem die et nocte gemens et lacrimans, ut mihi donaretur.

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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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