The Passion Of Perpetua And Felicitas Analysis

“The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” is a document written in ancient Roman times that exhibits the role religion plays in the forming of a culture and the lives of individuals in the ancient world. For her belief in Christianity, they throw Perpetua into jail. Her execution is fighting animals in an arena. She does not renounce her faith in the face of persecution and thus becomes a martyr. This text is a unique key into the past in many ways. Part of it is written by a woman, it gives a detailed account of her martyrdom and gives us some insight into the culture of ancient Rome. For these reasons, this document provides us with valuable knowledge, specifically concerning the purpose for the composing and preservation of this document.

There are two authors in “The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” Perpetua herself writes in the form of her journal while she is in prison and another author writes the prologue and epilogue, at a later time. For this paper, we will focus on the purpose of the anonymous author, as Perpetua’s writing contributes to this. This document is propaganda in support of Christianity and is a valuable document for the spreading of the faith. This is instrumental in why this document survived. The author’s purpose is to spread Christianity and to reinforce the faith through the story of Perpetua. Perpetua’s visions while in prison, the fact that Perpetua is a woman, and the story of the martyr’s experiences while in prison are points that confirm the author’s purpose.
The visions Perpetua has while in prison validate that she is doing the right thing by giving her life for her faith. Her first vision occurs after her brother comes to see her in prison. The result of their conversation leads Perpetua to ponder and pray about the reason she was going to die. She had a vision in which she encountered a ladder of bronze leading up to heaven. There was a snake at the bottom who attempted to frighten people from going up. In the vision, she ends up following Saturus, who is in prison with her, up the ladder and past the serpent. At the top, she is welcomed into heaven. This vision strengthens Perpetua while she is in prison as it confirms that she is on the track to become a martyr. She overcomes the snake, which symbolizes doubt and the world, which is full of evil, to follow Saturus into what she believes is heaven. By her resistance to the serpent and clinging to her faith, as she does to the ladder, she will reach heaven. As she realizes that she will die for her belief she says she “began to have no hope any longer in this world” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 4). She believes the promise of heaven is far greater than living in the evil world. This is a viable point for the author, that Christianity isn’t about this world, but heaven beyond it. It serves as an incentive for one to live life as a Christian, despite persecution and death. In Perpetua’s second vision, she experiences the power of prayer, as one day she sees a vision of her brother, dirty, hot and thirsty. She prays for him, and again sees a vision, but this time he is clean and can drink from the water. Perpetua puts this in her journal as another testament to her belief. She sees change occur through her prayers and is yet again validated in her belief. This is support for this religion because such a vision shows that change could occur through prayer and was confirmation for Perpetua that there was something out there that was listening. Her third and final vision seems to be the strongest in terms of telling Perpetua she is doing the right thing. In her vision, she is taken to an arena to fight an Egyptian. She ends up defeating him and says when she awoke from her vision, “I understood that I should fight, not with beasts, but against the devil; but I knew that mine was the victory” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 13). With this vision, she has faced her death. She will fight the beasts during her execution, but she is looking further than just her life on earth. The Egyptian in her vision represents the non-Christians who are persecuting them. The fact that she defeats the Egyptian, symbolizes that she believes her martyrdom she will have strengthened her own faith, as well as the faith of Christianity as a whole. Because of her actions, she will be an example to other Christians to not forsake their faith in persecution. This is what the author would project from this vision, that she may lose her life, but in the end, she would overcome and defeat the evil by strengthening the Christian religion. He explains this when he talks about Perpetua’s story, and martyrdom in the prologue. He explains, “we also therefore… do of necessity both write them and by reading celebrate them to the glory of God; … for a witness to those who don’t believe and a benefit to those that do” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 1). The visions Perpetua has serve to strengthen her determination to become a martyr and face death for her faith. Through her visions we see power of prayer, going to heaven and faith being more important than living in the world. The purpose of promoting Christianity is evident through the visions as they are examples of philosophies of the religion put in to practice.
The fact that Perpetua is a woman plays a key part in understanding the document and its impact.

For the author, the fact that Perpetua is a woman strengthens her sacrifice for her faith. This is due to the societal norms and customs she disobeys and overcomes to become a martyr. In ancient Rome, they lived in a patriarchal society. This will make her disobedience of her father more noteworthy as it violates the cultural custom. In her writing, Perpetua talks of her father coming to her in the prison. She says “He came up to me to cast down my faith saying: Have pity, daughter, on my grey hairs; have pity on your father, if I am worthy to be called father by you” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 5). Multiple times, her father comes to her in prison, begging that she say she is not a Christian so she may live. Through this interaction with her father, we can see his fatherly love as he tries to prevent her death. We also see a sort of disgrace that comes from a daughter’s disobedience, she writes that her father says “give me not over to the reproach of men” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 5). This show of direct disobedience of her father portrays Perpetua as a stronger martyr. She is not only giving her life for her faith, but going against society and customs, saying her beliefs are more important than both. This is a strong example to encourage conversion to Christianity. When Perpetua is in prison, her father tells her to “look upon your son, who will not endure to live after you” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 5). This leads to another point concerning Perpetua as a woman. If she dies for her faith, she will abandon her child and give up being a mother. In ancient times, much of a women’s identity was in her ability to be a good mother. With her martyrdom, Perpetua will choose faith over this key part of her life and legacy. This, yet again, shows why, by being a woman, Perpetua is a strong example in the author’s purpose to convert

nonbelievers. In the article, “The Female Martyr and the Politics of Death”, by Shannon Dunn, Dunn talks about the politics of the martyrdom of Perpetua. She discusses how Perpetua trades in her identity as a mother of a child for the mother of a community. Through her martyrdom, women can connect to this religious movement. This is key for the success of this religion as women are the mothers who will teach their children and raise them in the Christian religion.
Throughout this document there are stories of the martyrs in jail with Perpetua that reinforce their religion and supports the goal to recruit Christian followers. There are others persecuted for their belief of Christianity with Perpetua, this includes Felicity and Saturus. Perpetua’s son is miraculously weaned after he is given to her family as she goes to face execution, she writes “and as God willed, no longer did he need to be suckled, nor did I take fever; that I might not be tormented by care for the child…” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 6). Felicity is pregnant when in jail. It isn’t lawful in Roman custom to execute a pregnant woman. Felicity is afraid that she won’t be able to be martyred with the rest of her companions in prison. They pray three days before the games, or execution, and she ends up giving birth early, ensuring she will be martyred with the others. Saturus predicts his death. He says he will die from a single bite from a leopard. After being given to many beasts, a bear and a boar, the leopard is last animal he is given to. He tells a soldier at the gate “so then indeed, as I trusted and foretold, I have felt no assault of beasts until now” (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas 21). From one bite of the leopard he dies. These accounts of prison and the actual execution reinforce the fact that they were not simply being killed, but that they become martyrs to prove a greater cause and to shed light on their religion so that others would believe as well. These things may have happened by coincidence, but the purpose for the author is to convince us that there is a religious reason.
The author has told the story of these individuals’ martyrdom. Through this he attempts to gain a greater following for the Christian religion, He does this by showing that their death was validated for their religion, through Perpetua’s visions, the fact that she fought and overcame much to die and finally, the stories of their experiences in prison and during execution.
This document show the impacts of religion in the lives of people in ancient times. This persecution of a certain type of believer is not unlike what has happened throughout time, for example, the persecution of Jews during World War II. This commitment to faith and willingness to die for such an abstract thing as religion can be seen across time and cultures as well, through things such as the Islamic concept of Jihad. Not only does this document give a detailed look into martyrdom during this time but it resonates with support for the Christian religion. It demonstrating the role of religion within individual lives and its clash with a culture and society.