This weekend we begin to celebrate the Scrutinizes with our Catechumens and Candidates, those adults seeking to join us in the Catholic faith. This coming week is the Memorial of Saints Perpetua and Felicity on March 7. The account of the deaths of Perpetua and Felicity, written at least in part from Perpetua’s own hand, is among the oldest works of martyrology we have from the ancient Church. They were both Catechumens.
Perpetua was a 22-year-old well-educated, high-spirited married woman who had every reason to want live, including a baby son who was still nursing. Her father and others pleaded with her to renounce her new found Christian faith, but her answer was simple and clear. “I cannot call myself by any other name that what I am – a Christian”. Perpetua was arrested with four other catechumens including two slaves Felicity and Revocatus, and Saturninus and Secundulus. The catechist, Saturnus, had already been imprisoned before them. She was baptized before taken to prison. Perpetua admitted her being afraid while enduring the extreme darkness and torture in prison, but she wrote that her most excruciating pain came from being separated from her baby.
The young slave, Felicity, was even worse off because she was 8 months pregnant and had to endure the stifling heat, overcrowding, and rough handling by the guards in prison. Two deacons who ministered to the prisoners paid the guards so that the martyrs would be put in a better part of the prison. It was there that Perpetua’s mother and brother were able to visit her and bring her baby to be nursed. When she received permission for her baby to stay with her “my prison suddenly became a palace for me.”
It was against the law for pregnant women to be executed because, unlike our so-called enlightened society today, it was believed then that to kill a child in the womb was the shedding of innocent blood. Felicity was in anguish that she would not be able to suffer martyrdom with her companions, and her friends also didn’t want to leave so “good a comrade” behind. Two days before the execution, Felicity went into painful labor. The guards made fun of her, insulting her by saying, “If you think you suffer now, how will you stand it when you face the wild beasts?” Felicity answered them calmly, “No I’m the one who is suffering, but in the arena, my child will suffer for me because I will be suffering for him.” She gave birth to a healthy girl who was adopted and raised by one of the Christian women of Carthage.
All the catechumens were stripped of their clothes and thrown into the arena to face the wild animals. When the crowd, however, saw the two young women, one of whom had obviously just given birth, they were horrified, and the women were removed from the arena and given netting to wear as clothing. After being attacked and ravaged by the beast, the catechumens were still alive, so they had their throats cut by the executioners. Perpetua’s last words were to her brother: “Stand fast in the faith and love one another.”
To all of the catechumens and candidates as well as to those of us who are already Catholic Christians, the Scrutinizes call us to conversion and repentance, and are intended to deliver us from sin, give protection from temptation and invite us to follow Christ. As we remember these amazing young women martyrs, we need to remember that Jesus Himself said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23. Perpetua and Felicity as new Catholics had such amazing trust and faith and carried their cross of martyrdom. Let us seek their intercession and strength for ourselves and all Catechumens and Candidates who journey towards the Easter Sacraments.
God Bless,
