Saint Perpetua and her Companions, Martyrs

March 7 – St. Perpetua and her Companions, Martyrs –

Died 7 March 203. Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua (b. 181) was a 22-year old married noble, and a nursing mother. Her co-martyr Felicity, an expectant mother, was her slave. They suffered together at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

The Passion of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their Companions is said to preserve the actual words of the martyrs and their friends. According to this Passion, in the year 203, during the persecutions of the emperor Septimius Severus, five catechumens, among whom were Perpetua and Felicity, were arrested for their faith and executed. Their final days in prison are a vivid account of Christian faith in the face of impending martyrdom. Read the text here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/perpetua.asp

~Image: Painting showing the martyrdom of Perpetua, Felicitas, Revocatus, Saturninus and Secundulus, from the Menologion of Basil II (c. 1000 AD)