Today the Church remembers Perpetua and her companions, martyred together in Carthage in the year 203 A.D.
Vibia Perpetua was a married noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant she was nursing. Felicitas, a slave imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.
According to surviving letters that she and an eyewitness wrote, a slave named Revocatus, his fellow slave Felicitas, the two free men Saturninus and Secundulus, and Perpetua, who were catechumens, that is, Christians being instructed in the faith but not yet baptized, were arrested and executed at the military games in celebration of the Emperor Septimus Severus's birthday. To this group was added a man named Saturus, who voluntarily went before the magistrate and proclaimed himself a Christian.
Perpetua’s execution, who was an aristocratic Roman citizen, alongside slaves demonstrated Christianity’s ability to transcend social distinctions, in contrast to the inequality that pervaded Roman religion and society. As Perpetua and Felicitas were equal in martyrdom despite differences in class, they made the dramatic statement that Christianity transcended all social norms and structure. In Christ, through one Faith, one baptism, and equally sharing the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, all are made one.
May the Church live up to the courage of Perpetua and her companions, not just in facing death together, but in living as equals in life when everyone and everything told them that they were not equals.
Blessed Perpetua, Felicitas, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus, and Saturus...orate pro nobis.
O God the King of saints, you strengthened your servants Perpetua and Felicitas and their companions to make a good confession, staunchly resisting, for the cause of Christ, the claims of human affection, and encouraging one another in their time of trial: Grant that we who cherish their blessed memory may share their pure and steadfast faith, and win with them the palm of victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
