Felicity and Perpetua

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is one of the earliest records of the experience of Christian women. According to the Latin and Greek texts, Perpetua belonged to the Roman aristocracy in Carthage, North Africa. Together with her slave Felicity (or "Felicitas"), Perpetua became a catechumen in defiance of emperor Lucius Septimius Severus's sanctions prohibiting conversion to Christianity. The two women were baptized before their arrest, and while in prison Felicity gave birth to a child. Perpetua nursed her own newborn infant while in prison, and eventually both young women gave their newborns to surrogate mothers in Carthage's Christian community. The Romans executed Felicity and Perpetua in 203 CE.

Sources: McBrien, Richard P. ed. The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1995. Pp 523, 986.