Vibia Perpetua

Vibia Perpetua was a young, well-educated Christian noblewoman of the Roman province of Africa (modern Tunisia) who was martyred in Carthage in 203 CE. Born around 182, she came from a prominent family and was recently married with an infant son at the time of her arrest during the persecutions under Emperor Septimius Severus. Along with her slave companion Felicity, a pregnant Christian woman, and several others, Perpetua was imprisoned for refusing to perform pagan religious rites. During her captivity, she received mystical visions which she recorded in the first three chapters of what became known as the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, one of the earliest surviving Christian writings by a woman. Her account provides an intimate glimpse into early Christian spirituality and the experience of persecution in the late second century. On March 7, 203, Perpetua and Felicity were led into the arena at Carthage where they were attacked by a wild heifer; after being mortally wounded, they were finished by gladiators. According to eyewitness accounts preserved by early Church fathers, Perpetua's final words were a call to faith and charity: "Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, all of you, and be not offended at my sufferings." Her martyrdom and writings had profound influence on early Christianity, and she became one of the most venerated saints in the early Church, commemorated in the Roman Canon itself and celebrated across the Christian world.