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Perpetua and Felicitas at their deaths.
Excerpted from the video curriculum series, The Trial and Testimony of the Early Church takes a close-up look at two Early Church martyrs, Polycarp and Perpetua, who would rather pay with their lives than deny their faith.
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he dungeon became to me as it were a palace. --Perpetua (about 202)
Think of the absurdity of the statement! Consider how contrary it is
to our cultural assumptions about self-fulfillment. The words were uttered
by a young woman about 22 years of age from Carthage in North Africa.
It was around AD 200.
Perpetua had recently given birth to baby boy and she had also recently
been put in the dungeon because she would not disown her Christian faith.
She kept a diary of her prison experience, possibly the first document
we have from the hands of a Christian woman. At first Perpetua was not
allowed to have her baby with her in prison. Then the authorities relented
and permitted her to nurse and care for the child. All at once, she reported,
she began to feel better and felt her health return. Then it was that
the prison became her palace and she adds that she was content to stay
there.
This from a young woman of considerable wealth and education. Dire circumstances
did not defeat her. The prospect of torture and death could not break
her spirit. She demonstrated how for a believer external conditions in
the final analysis are not as important as our attitude toward them.
Perpetua refused repeated opportunities to deny she was a Christian and
so was eventually brought into the arena and killed. Observers noted she
went joyfully as though on the way to heaven. The world again was baffled
by the secret many Christians across the centuries have discovered. Simply
put, with Christ as Lord they feasted upon an inner joy that enabled them
to meet with serenity of spirit whatever came their way.
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