The Courage of Carthage: The Unbroken Faith of Perpetua and Felicity
In the year 203 A.D., under the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, a darkness fell across the Roman province of Africa, where a decree was issued forbidding all conversions to Christianity. This edict set the stage for one of the most powerful stories of faith, defiance, and unity in the early church, preserved for posterity in the very words of one of the martyrs herself.
This is the story of Vibia Perpetua and Felicity, two women from different social classes—a noblewoman and a slave—united by a faith that refused to break under the immense pressure of the Roman Empire.
The Prophetic Hotspot: A Trial of Class and Kin
Perpetua was a well-educated, recently married noblewoman of about 22 with a nursing infant son. Felicity was her slave, who was eight months pregnant. Along with four companions, they were arrested as catechumens (Christians preparing for baptism) in Carthage.
The conflict for Perpetua was intensely personal and family-centered. Her pagan father repeatedly visited her in the dungeon, begging her to recant for the sake of her family name and her infant child. In a moment of quiet defiance that became famous in church history, Perpetua pointed to a water-pot and asked her father, “Could it be called by any other name than what it is?” When he replied, “No,” she stated, “Well, so too I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.”
She was separated from her child, enduring the stench and heat of the prison, but her faith remained resolute. She eventually was permitted to bring her infant into the cell, and she famously wrote that after the anguish subsided, “the dungeon became to me as it were a palace, so that I preferred being there to being elsewhere.”
The Journey: Two Women, One Stand
The strength of their faith transcended their circumstances and their gender in a patriarchal world.
The Test of Felicity: Felicity faced a unique distress: Roman law forbade the public execution of a pregnant woman. This meant she risked being delayed and killed later, separated from her companions, alongside common criminals. She and the others prayed, and miraculously, two days before the scheduled games, Felicity went into labor and gave birth to a healthy girl. When a guard mocked her cries of pain, saying, “If you suffer so much now, what will you do when you are exposed to the wild beasts?” Felicity gave an enduring answer of faith: “Now it is I that suffer what I suffer; but then there will be another in me, who will suffer for me, because I also am about to suffer for Him.”
The Final Vision: Perpetua’s recorded dreams affirmed their ultimate victory. In one, she saw a terrible, towering ladder reaching to heaven, beset with swords and weapons, and guarded by a serpent. She stepped on the serpent’s head and ascended to a beautiful garden, symbolizing that their physical suffering would lead directly to glory.
The Arena: On the day of the execution, the martyrs marched to the amphitheater “joyfully as though they were going to heaven.” After the men were mauled, Perpetua and Felicity were stripped and thrown to a wild heifer. The crowd, however, reportedly “shuddered as they saw one young woman of delicate frame, and another with breasts still dropping from her recent childbirth” and demanded they be reclothed.
They were ultimately condemned to die by the sword. The eyewitness account records that they stood facing each other and exchanged the “Kiss of Peace.” When the young gladiator’s hand wavered before Perpetua, she herself reached out and guided his blade to her throat, a final, shocking demonstration of her fearless commitment to the faith.
The Return Question: The Perseverance of the Saints
The story of Perpetua and Felicity is a powerful commentary on the nature of enduring faith and the hope of the Lord’s Return.
- The Power of Conversion: These women, one wealthy and one enslaved, became equals in Christ, demonstrating that the Kingdom of God utterly disregards human social structures.
- The Strength for the Final Hour: Felicity’s words—”Another will be inside me who will suffer for me”—echo the future promise given in scripture for those who will face the greatest tribulation: “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you” (Matthew 10:20, KJV). Their joy in the face of death points to the ultimate promise that for the believer, suffering is but a moment before eternal triumph.
- The Unbreakable Seal: Their martyrdom proves that no worldly power—not an imperial decree, the love of a father, nor the brutal force of an arena—can sever the bond between a believer and their Lord. This steadfastness in the 3rd Century is the blueprint for the faith required of the saints who will face the final pressures of this world as the Lord’s Return draws nigh.