The Martyrdom Of Perpetua And Felicitas

Perpetua is concerned with living a good life following God and his plan and not living a significant life. She has every chance in the world to follow the significant path. She is “nobly born, reared in liberal manner, and wedded honorably” (CTR 232). Her dad even tries to “vex her with his

Perpetua was a true woman of faith. Perpetua was a twenty-two-year-old, a Christian, a mother, a daughter, and a martyr. The story of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is the story of the execution of Perpetua and her Christian companions. This story reveals the difficulty Christian’s went through during this time, the chasm between the Roman and Christian communities, and the experience of Christian persecution for going against the Roman cultural norms. Perpetua’s personal prison diary expresses her extremely deep faith in Christianity. Perpetua and her Christian companions were prepared to be tortured, publicly humiliated, and in the end, lose their lives for their faith. Perpetua had a young baby still nursing her and Felicitas was

“The moment I understood her hatred, my family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo just as before losing my baby. Jesus had not taken anything away from me. There was the Perozos, not a man left in that family and Martinez Reyna and his wife murdered in their bed and thousands of Haitians murdered at the border. Making the river they say still red. I had heard but not believed. How could our all loving father let us suffer? I looked up challenging him and the two faces merged” (Alvarez 53).

Perpetua’s background already highlights her significance in the Christian community and even among the Christian women. Since we now have her own narrative of her days in the prison, we as readers can conclude that she was very likely to be literate and maybe well educated. According to W.V. Harris, Perpetua knew Latin, and maybe Greek also. Brent D. Shaw says in his article that Vibia Perpetua’s family name indicates that this was a locally prestigious family that had obtained their Roman citizenship for generations. The high social status of Perpetua is an advocating point in reinforcing the unconditioned devotion to God among Christians, especially among Christian women. As a woman with Perpetua’s significant background, Perpetua became more powerful in delivering the message of her dramatic life experience and her faith. More women in the Christian

By comparing the following primary sources, “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas” and “The Rape of Lucretia,” historians can learn about the archetypes of Roman society. The former text, written in 202 or 203 CE, is a prison diary of a young martyr in Carthage. The protagonist, Perpetua, is arrested and sentenced to death because she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Despite having a newborn and hearing consistent outcry from her father to renounce her faith, Perpetua refused to absolve from Christianity. Prior to her execution, she and her comrades experience visions of entering Heaven and specifics of how their deaths would be bestowed upon them. These visions provided comfort to the prisoners because they legitimized the belief in God, as well as sanctioned the power of God to perform miracles. As God willed it, Perpetua, the “most valiant and blessed martyrs”, was ultimately executed in the arena. The latter text, written in 17 AD by Roman historian, Livy, is a story of propaganda about the rape of a honorable woman named Lucretia. Lucretia, Tarquinius Conlatinus’s wife, was the quintessential example of a Roman martyr. She was applauded for her modest, hospitable, and dutiful nature. Tragically, she was forcibly raped by the emperor’s son, Sextus Tarquinius. Consequently, Brutus, Tarquinius, and Lucretia’s father, did not object while witnessing Lucretia commit suicide in order to preserve her and her family’s

Many say they were killed because they refused to worship the empire , but by them not even worshiping the roman gods or taking part in sacrifice ( it was expected from you ) lots of people hated christians and by them preaching often resulted with stonings and other horrible things

In this vision, Pomponius the deacon lead her to the middle of an arena. While in the area she was stripped naked then suddenly turned into a man. Afterwards, as common with all gladiators, she was rubbed down with oil and to her amazement the beast was not set out against her; however, an ill-favored Egyptian and his helpers were sent to fight her. After winning the fight, the master of the gladiators gave Perpetua the branch. Perpetua then began to go with Glory to the gate called the Gate of Life. She believed this vision meant that her fight was not against beasts, but it was against the devil because the victory was already hers. The Narrative of Martyrdom states that Perpetua wanted to taste pain on the day she died. When the swordsman hand had slipped, as a strength of her power, she put the sword to her own

Both Justin Martyr and Perpetua, despite what was against them held on strong to their belief in Christianity. Justin Martyr bravely wrote two letters of apologies to the emperor, “asking for toleration and attempting at the same time to explain the Christianity religion” (Cunningham 203). Where as Perpetua refused to go against being a Christian, despite being thrown in prison she stayed strong to her choice. That if you did not agree to emperor you would be killed, imprisoned, or thrown in to the arena with deadly

One reason Christianity affected Rome drastically was during the emperor Nero’s time, when he blamed the christians on a fire he started. Not only were the christians being hated, but hundreds of thousands of christians were killed. Another reason why christianity affected Rome was due to the christians refusing to sacrifice to other gods and not worship the emperor because, “he was not a god, and there is only one god”. Another reason Christians have had a bad effect on rome was due to rumors going around that they are cannibals but misunderstood the fact

Ancient Rome practiced many religions which had their own rules. Christians had to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. People believed Jesus Christ was the son of God because of his resurrection. Christians had to pray and worship, as well as be a good person. In Ancient Rome Christianity took time to be accepted. Christians as well as Jesus Christ were persecuted for their beliefs. Romulus and Remus are the mythical founders of Rome

The Roman Empire during the middle ages and the time of Perpetua was a period of great changes in attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of Christianity. The Martyrdom of Perpetua was written by Vibia Perpetua accounting her imprisonment and visions from her persecution by Septimus Severus after declaring her faith in Christianity, then later the story was completed by martyr Saturus. Therefore, making her story a primary source, as is Paula’s story described in the letter to her mother from St. Jerome. Perpetua’s story is about her persecution and death due to her Christian faith, this varies quite differently from Paula’s position as being created for the purpose of serving God and Christianity as a nun; nonetheless, there are similarities between these two women’s stories.

But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.” (Fulcher) What’s gruesome is the account that none were spared, not even the children. Christians understood the pain and loss at the hands of many roman Leader like Nero who burned Roman to the ground and had many Christians burned.

The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, was by far not a simple one. The Roman Empire was generally quite tolerant in the treatment of other religions. So why did they persecute the Christians, and how did this all begin? These persecutions mainly started in 64 A.D when a great fire broke out under the rule of Emperor Nero. In order to deflect the public 's opinion on him, he blamed the Christians and this blame then allowed, and paved way for the aggressive persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire for the next two centuries. After Nero, the first imperial persecutor, then comes in the age of Trajan (98-117 A.D.). After receiving a letter from Pliny the Younger, the governor of Bithynia in the north of Asia Minor, to the Emperor Trajan, tells us about the view and executions of Christians in his province. This primary source holds to be very valuable when researching the relationship the Pagan Romans had with the Christians. All throughout the history of the Roman Empire, Christians have been persecuted and treated terribly due to the view of them as mysterious or “unknown”. The view of the Christians was mainly due to the ethnocentrism that went on in Rome during this time. Persecution was inevitable for these Christians and went on for centuries. The accusations they received were that they were atheists, cannibals, practiced incest, and all together these accusations showed how misunderstood the Christians really were. As a result of Trajan’s laws on the

“It is well known that in early Christianity, martyrs awaiting death could exercise and manifest extraordinary powers” (Klawiter, 1980, p. 245). Perpetua is an imprisoned confessor; “strict logic would lead one to conclude that an imprisoned confessor could have the status of a minister” (Klawiter, 1980, p. 245). The four visions Perpetua has in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas are important because, it is through these visions that we can see the development of ministerial powers through her martyrdom.

The objective of this study is to examine Christian persecution first by beginning in Greece and Rome in the ancient world. Jews were people that dressed differently, spoke differently and were even labeled as atheists due to their lack of a belief in any of the Greek or Roman gods or goddesses. The Jewish people were referred to as 'enemies of the human race' since the foods that they ate were different and they did not mingle in with others in social activities. Even more hated in the mainstream society were the Christians especially those who lived and became martyrs around the year A.D. 155. During this time, a persecution arose against Christians in Asia Minor with many of these becoming martyrs for the Christian faith.