Thursday, March 7, 2024

It is the 7th of March 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

When you spend your days reading church history, your eyes might start to glaze over when you read the story of the 1000th Christian martyr who goes bravely to their death. I know, I shouldn’t. The martyrdom of Christians is horrific and tragic and often a spectacular display of faith. It’s just that many of them start to sound the same- at various times in church history, the early church and Reformation periods, especially works about martyrs, had a very specific format, and they would come in collections, written to make a point, and they can become monotonous.

Perhaps this is why the story of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity from 203 A.D. stands out among stories of Christian martyrdom. We know their story stood out to none other than St. Augustine, who would often use this, their feast day, the 7th of March, as an excuse to preach on these incredible women and their deaths.

As a historian this is a fascinating story and text because we have good reason to believe that the bulk of this passion story was written by Perpetua herself. This is then, a first person account of persecution in the early church and written by a woman.

So, who were Perpetua and Felicity? Perpetua is properly called Vibia Perpetua, “Vibia” being a noble family in Carthage, North Africa (modern day Tunisia- the location used as Tatooine in Star Wars). Felicity’s name gives her status away, you may remember that slaves were often renamed and “Felicity” and the male counterpart “Felix” meaning lucky were popular slave names.

The two women are linked as Catechumens, who were arrested in the year 203 under the reign of Septimius Severus. Severus was not an avid persecutor of Christians, but converting to Christianity was technically illegal (as unpatriotic and impious), and when a group of Catechumens (that is, confessing Christians preparing for baptism) made public confessions, they were arrested and would be put to death with other criminals, in this case by gladiators and beasts for a paying crowd.  

Their story, today easily found online as the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, was put together by an editor who gives us an introduction and then reproduces the prison letters of Perpetua and then gives us a first hand account of their martyrdom.

One striking aspect of this story is the pleas from both family members and the government for the women to recant. Perpetua is a new mother and Felicity is pregnant. But they refuse. In a famous dialogue Perpetua’s father begs her to stop calling herself a Christian- she points to a vase and says “can that be called by any other name?” To which he submits and her response is “Well, neither can I be called anything other than what I am, a Christian”.

She is given visions in prison of one of her brothers in paradise who confessed to Christ but was not yet baptized. This would be a foundational text in later discussions of the necessity of baptism.

In her other visions, she is seen climbing a ladder, crushing a dragon, and fighting an Egyptian, symbolizing the devil himself. For this reason, she is sure she must endure the pains of being a martyr to the end. While Felicity is pregnant, she prays for a quick delivery such that she could suffer martyrdom (a pregnant woman, by law, could not be thrown to beasts). When she gives birth, she is mocked when she shouts in pain, being told that if she can’t handle that, how on earth could she suffer the torture of martyrdom? She replies that in Martyrdom, it will not be her suffering alone, but Christ in her as well.  

The group is led to the forum where all are scourged, and then the women are thrown to feral cows. When the stampede didn’t kill them, a guard was sent out. We hear then that he became anxious as he was young, and when his initial jab was between the shoulders, Perpetua guided the blade to her throat and died.

It’s a stunning story, a noble woman and slave sharing the same confession, fate, and identity in Christ. A story about, and written by a woman could be used to delegitimize a religious group in the empire but it was held as a shining example of faith in, and the imitation of, Christ. We do well to remember them, and all the martyrs, but them especially today- the 7th of March- on what has been their feast day for over 1600 years.

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary from Ephesians 1:

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 7th of March 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows that technically, you could call a vase a pot, urn or vessel…  he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who implores you to not say “vahz” unless you are super, super fancy- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.