“When my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me
from my purpose by arguments and thus weaken my faith, I said to
him, ‘Do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be? Can
it be called by any other name than what it is?’ ‘No,’ he
replied. ‘So also I cannot call myself by any other name than
what I am—a Christian.’” So writes Perpetua, young, beautiful,
well-educated, a noblewoman of Carthage in North Africa, mother
of an infant son and chronicler of the persecution of the
Christians by Emperor Septimius Severus. Despite threats of
persecution and death, Perpetua, Felicity (a slavewoman and
expectant mother) and three companions, Revocatus, Secundulus
and Saturninus, refused to renounce their Christian faith. For
their unwillingness, all were sent to the public games in the
amphitheater. There, Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded, and
the others killed by beasts. Perpetua’s mother was a Christian
and her father a pagan. He continually pleaded with her to deny
her faith. She refused and was