This is a powerful and moving account of Perpetua’s martyrdom. Her story is one of incredible faith, defiance, and courage in the face of persecution. The fact that she left behind a firsthand account of her experiences makes her legacy even more profound—she wasn’t just a figure remembered through secondhand stories; her own voice has echoed through history.
It’s remarkable how her suffering not only strengthened the faith of those around her but also even converted her jailer. Her final words—urging unity and perseverance—make her a figure not just of sacrifice but of leadership.
She walked into the Roman arena where the wild beasts awaited her. She trembled not from fear but from joy. Her name was Vibia Perpetua. She was just 22, a young mother singing hymns as the crowd jeered and a lion, leopard and wild cow encircled her.
One of the beasts attacked, hurling her to the ground. She covered an exposed thigh with her bloody robe to preserve her modesty and groped in the dust for her hair pin so she could fix her disheveled hair.
And when a Roman executioner approached Perpetua with a sword, her last words before collapsing were aimed at her Christian companions: “Stand fast in the faith, and love you all one another and do not let our sufferings be a stumbling block to you.”
History remembers Perpetua because she kept a diary during her imprisonment entitled “The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity” (Felicity was a pregnant slave girl arrested with Perpetua). Her diary is one of the rare and oldest-surviving documents written by a Christian woman. The emotion in the diary is almost unbearable. Perpetua describes the pain of leaving her infant son, who she was still nursing. She describes a prison visit from her weeping father, who kissed her hands while pleading with her to renounce her faith.
A narrator picks up the story in the diary after Perpetua was sent to her death. He wrote in the diary that Perpetua’s faith was so inspiring it caused the prison’s warden to convert. The narrator also describes Perpetua’s death. While she was imprisoned, Perpetua says God gave her visions to reassure her. After one, she wrote: “I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil.”
If only we were so wise!
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