Sts. Perpetua and Felicity

Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were among the most celebrated martyrs of the early Church, put to death together in the arena at Carthage in North Africa in the year 203, during the persecution of the Emperor Septimius Severus. Perpetua was a young noblewoman of about twenty-two, still nursing an infant son, while Felicity was a slave who gave birth in prison only days before her death; bound by faith rather than by rank, the two women faced martyrdom as sisters.

Much of their story is preserved in one of the most precious documents of Christian antiquity, an account that includes Perpetua's own prison diary, in which she records her visions, her steadfastness against the pleading of her pagan father, and her serene courage. Refusing every inducement to renounce Christ, the two women, with several companions, were exposed to wild beasts and then finished by the sword, encouraging one another to the end. So revered was their witness that their names were placed in the Roman Canon of the Mass, and they are celebrated together on 7 March.