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The saints

Sts Perpetua and Felicity

A young noblewoman and a slave, side by side in a Carthage prison. Perpetua wrote it all down.

Feast: 7 March · died 7 March 203 · Carthage, North Africa

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The ruined amphitheatre of Carthage, Tunisia: grassy terraces and stone arches around an oval arena.

Neil Rickards, 2003. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Home / The saints / Sts Perpetua and Felicity

A prison in Carthage, 203

The prison is dark, and the air is hard to breathe.1

A young mother named Perpetua is terrified, above all for her baby son.1

Then her mother brings the child to her, and she is allowed to keep him with her.1

She kept a diary in that prison. It has survived for eighteen centuries.

01Sts Perpetua and Felicity

Her father’s pleading

Vibia Perpetua was a young married lady of noble birth; Felicity was a slave.1

Perpetua’s pagan father came again and again, carrying her child in his arms, begging her to give up her faith.1

The visions of Saturus and Perpetua in prison were written down by the martyrs themselves.1

02Sts Perpetua and Felicity

The kiss of peace

Felicity was eight months pregnant and afraid she would not be allowed to die with the others.1

In the amphitheatre they gave each other the kiss of peace and were then put to the sword.1

The ruined amphitheatre of Carthage, Tunisia: grassy terraces and stone arches around an oval arena.
The amphitheatre of Carthage, Tunisia, where the martyrs died in 203. Neil Rickards, 2003. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

A noblewoman and a slave, equal in the arena, equal in heaven. Their names are in the Roman Canon.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.