First, let me say that The Passion of the Saints Perpetua and Felicitas (Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Feliciatas) is not a memoir. Yet Passio has many aspects of a memoir, tempered by the history of the Christian martyrs, and the pagan myths that were a part of Roman culture.
This short book, written in Latin in the early third century A.D, is regarded as the most important, and certainly the liveliest, of a genre known as the Acts or Lives of the Saints. Vibia Perpetua is the heroine, a Christian martyr who wrote a vivid account of her life in prison before her death in 203 A.D. She and five other Christians were sentenced to be killed at the games in Carthage in a fight with wild animals.
Perpetua’s narrative occupies seven very short chapters. We learn that she is honeste nata, liberaliter instituta, matronaliter nupta (well-born, liberally educated, and a married woman). She is also a mother. Her sentence would be revoked if she denied that she was a Christian, but she will not retract her statement.
Perpetua’s father is nearly mad with grief. He longs to save her from prison, and he begs her to return to her family: himself, her mother, two brothers, an aunt, and her baby. At one point he attacks her physically, hoping he can drag her out of jail by violence.
Perpetua remains calm, and tries reasoning with him. Below is my literal translation of their very brief but logical dialogue from the Latin. The Latin appears beneath my translation.
“Father, I say, do you see for the sake of argument this dish lying here, or is it a pitcher? And he says: I see. And I say to him: And can it be called by another name than what it is? And he says: No. Thus I cannot say that I am other than a Christian.”
Pater, inquam, vides verbi gratia vas hoc iacens, urceolum sive aliud? et dixit: Video. Et ego dixi ei: Numquid alio nomine vocari potest quam quod est? et ait: Non. Sic et ego aliud me dicere non possum nisi quod sum, Christiana.
The Christians did not compromise. Heads down, is what I would have advised in that pagan age. But Perpetua and her five companions, including her pregnant slave, Felicitas, are determined to be martyrs.
Her father continues to try intercede,. He reminds her about her baby, who he says is starving without her. Perpetua is allowed to have her son with her in prison for a time, though eventually her father must take him back. She worries about the boy’s nutrition, and that her breast will be infected from not nursing.
Perpetua also has visions. In one vision, she sees her unbaptized brother suffering in hell. He died at age seven of cancer, and now he is doomed to stand in a pool, yet never reach the water that will sate his thirst. (This is a common motif in Greek myth, though I hardly think Tantalus has a connection to her brother). But Perpetua’s constant prayers for her brother save him, and she sees him happily drinking water (baptism?).
There are other visions, one of them involving a bronze ladder, the description of which is fantastic, bordering on magic realism. In another vision, she is turned into a man, and must fight a terrifying Egyptian. If the Egyptian wins, he will be allowed to kill her, and if she wins, she will receive a green branch on which golden apples grow. (Again, the golden apples are a mythic element.)
Perpetua is he star of the book, but her Christian slave, Felicitas, is connected to Perpetua because both are mothers. Felicitas gives birth to a daughter on the road while traveling to the games. The men, too, have interesting stories, but I was most interested in Perpetua.
After reading widely about Perpetua, I realize that almost nothing is known for sure. It is all based on conjecture, even the date of her death. Nonetheless, it is fascinating and moving, whether you’re interested in memoirs or lives of the saints.
