Saint Perpetua

Description

Perpetua was a woman of noble birth, who lived in Carthage in North Africa, in what is today Tunisia. Perpetua did not come from a uniformly Christian family; her father was a pagan, as was one of her brothers. However, her mother and two brothers were Christians, and Perpetua herself was a catechumen, undergoing instruction in the Christian faith. Perpetua had a slave named Felicity, who was also a catechumen. These two women, along with three others (and later a fourth), were thrown into prison as a result of Septimius Severus’s decree.
At some point following their arrest, the five catechumens received baptism. They remained in prison, awaiting trial. The conditions in the prison were horribly oppressive, and Perpetua’s father continually tried to get her to apostatize, to abandon her Christian faith to save her life. But Perpetua continued to refuse.
At the time of her arrest, Perpetua had a young son. Her mother and catechumen brother visited her in prison, and brought Perpetua’s young child. She was allowed to keep him there and nurse him, and was moved to a better part of the prison. Perpetua had been overcome with anxiety for her son, but when she had him with her in the prison, she had a vision. This vision assured her of her coming martyrdom, and of the fact that she had nothing to fear. Her son would be okay, her family would be okay, and she did not need to fear the death that awaited her.