Martyr Perpetua of Carthage

Saint Perpetua, born Vibia Perpetua, was a 22-year-old noblewoman of Carthage, recently having given birth to a son, when she was arrested as a catechumen during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. Suffering with her were her slave Felicity (eight months pregnant at the time of arrest), her brother Saturus, and the catechumens Revocatus and Secundulus.

Despite the repeated pleas of her elderly pagan father, who invoked her duty as a mother, Perpetua refused to renounce Christ. Felicity gave birth to a daughter in prison shortly before the execution, since Roman law forbade executing pregnant women, and rejoiced that she would now be able to die together with her companions. Secundulus died in prison before the execution.

The remaining martyrs were condemned to be torn apart by wild beasts in the Carthage arena: a wild heifer attacked Perpetua and Felicity, while others faced leopards and bears, after which they were finished with the sword; tradition holds that Perpetua herself guided the inexperienced executioner's blade to her own throat.

The "Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity" is a unique monument of the early Church, reportedly including Perpetua's own genuine prison diary and a vision recorded by Saturus; the text is referenced by Tertullian. The historicity of the diary as an autograph is debated among scholars, but this does not affect the veneration of the martyrs.

Her feast is kept on February 1/14.