Perpetua and Felicity: the young mothers martyred in Carthage in 203

Perpetua was twenty-two, educated and from a respected family. She had a baby son she was still nursing. Felicity was enslaved, and pregnant. In 203, in the North African city of Carthage, both women were arrested for being Christians and sentenced to die in the arena. Perpetua kept a diary in prison. It survives, and it remains one of the most remarkable documents of the early church.

Carthage and the arrest

Carthage, near modern Tunis, was one of the great cities of the Roman Empire and an important centre of early African Christianity. Under the emperor Septimius Severus, Christians in some parts of the empire faced persecution, especially new converts. Perpetua, Felicity and several men were arrested as catechumens, people preparing for baptism.

Perpetua's father, the diary and Felicity

Perpetua’s father, who was not a Christian, begged her to give up her faith to save her life and for the sake of her baby. She refused, saying she could not call herself anything other than a Christian. In prison, Perpetua wrote about her experiences and her visions. Her account, later completed by another writer, is known as the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity.

Felicity gave birth in prison shortly before the execution. Her baby was taken in by a Christian woman.

The arena and African Christianity

On 7 March 203, the prisoners were brought into the arena. They were attacked by animals and then killed by the sword. The account describes Perpetua comforting Felicity and the others before their deaths. Perpetua and Felicity are honoured as saints in many churches, with their feast day on 7 March. Their story is a reminder that Christianity took root in Africa in its earliest centuries.

Perpetua’s writing gives a rare first-hand voice of a young Christian woman from the ancient world. Their story shows faith that crossed social divides, uniting a noblewoman and an enslaved woman as sisters.

The visions and Augustine's sermons

Perpetua recorded several visions in prison, including one of a ladder reaching to heaven guarded by a dragon, which she climbed to reach a garden. These visions gave her courage and became famous in early Christian literature. Later African church leaders, including Augustine of Hippo, preached about the two martyrs and kept their memory alive.

Perpetua and Felicity came from opposite ends of Roman society. They walked into the arena at Carthage together, and the church has remembered them together ever since.