Perpétue de Carthage
v. 182-203 2nd century Feast day: March 7
Naming who you are before God, and holding to it when everything urges you to yield.
Who was Perpétue de Carthage?
A young mother of the Carthaginian aristocracy, arrested at 22 as a catechumen along with the slave Felicity. In prison she kept a diary (one of the oldest Christian texts written by a woman's hand), recording her visions, her father's anguish, the baby she was still nursing. She was given to the beasts in the amphitheatre on 7 March 203.
In their own words
Father, do you see this vessel lying here? Can it be called by any other name than what it is? Neither can I call myself anything other than what I am: a Christian.
My prison suddenly became a palace to me, so that I preferred to be there rather than anywhere else.
I understood that it was not against the beasts that I would fight, but against the devil; and I knew that the victory was mine.