PART 2
Like the martyrs at Vienne we also know the details of the martyrdom in Carthage firstly through the diary of Perpetua herself, and its completion by an eyewitness of her martyrdom and the others. Thus through "The Passion of Holy Women" we learn of her leadership in prison; her demands for better treatment and conditions for the prisoners; her love for her own baby, the birth-pains of her slave, Felicitas; her relationship with her father; her own preparation for death; her baptism; and the dreams she has to verify that she will indeed be martyred in a cruel way.
Her meetings with her father are very vivid as her tries to save her from death, but Perpetua explained that it is God who now rules her life. He in turn told Perpetua, she was his favourite child, and addresses her in an unprecedented way, as 'lady', domina.
Perpetua's baptism is significant in more than one way. In making her a Christian it gave her a sense of authority to act for her fellow prisoners. Thus she demands better conditions in prison for them, and she became their spokesman. It also gave her the strength to meet her ordeal. As part of that she recounted four dreams of ladders and dragons, heavenly gardens and good shepherds and cool refreshing waters. Through these dreams, she experiences the healing of all her relationships with her old family and the beginning of her total concentration on her new heavenly family. It is her final dream that pre-empts her martyrdom.
She dreams that she is going to her fate in the arena, but that when her clothes are removed, she discovers herself to be a man. In antiquity, the male body was considered the norm, and the strong woman was described as 'becoming male'. (This phrase will also later used about virginal women). The act of 'becoming male' indicated that all the carnality of the woman/Eve had been left behind, and a new creature was produced. This dream convinced Perpetua that she would prevail on the morrow, when she went to meet the wild beasts in the arena.
Despite her dream when she is actually in the arena there is a marked touch of feminity.
Sitting down she drew back her torn tunic from her side to cover her thighs, more mindful of her modesty than her suffering. Then having asked for a pin she furthered fastened her disordered hair. For it was not seemly that a martyr should suffer with her hair dishevelled, lest she should seem to mourn in the hour of her glory.
The execution of Perpetua and her companions took place in the 'Circus', that is, in the public arena, for the entertainment of Governor Hilarian and the city of Carthage. It was the Emperor's birthday and, on this special occasion, something special was offered to the city. Yet there was an air of superiority of Perpetua and her companions. The five marched with 'gay and gracious looks' into the arena, but 'when they came within sight of Hilarian, they began to signify to him by nods and gestures: "Thou art judging us, but God shall judge thee".'
Perpetua died with total dignity and, at the age of twenty-two, confounded the total power of the Roman Empire, and of the traditional male potestas over women's lives. During her time in the arena she felt herself in direct contact with God. All the cruel power of Roman imperialism was able to prevail against her in bringing about her death, but it was not able to conquer her spirit. In the end, she had to help the 'wavering hand' of the novice gladiator to find the right path for his sword because, as the editor remarks, 'so great a woman, who was feared by the unclean spirit, could not otherwise be slain except she willed'.
And what of Felicitas? Felicitas is introduced in the beginning of the story as a slave together with Revocatus. She was eight months pregnant when arrested and feared that her pregnancy would interfere with her martyrdom as 'it is against the law for women with child to be exposed for punishment.' Two days before the date for execution, all the prisoners joined together in prayer for Felicitas' safe delivery. Immediately, her birth pains started and she gave birth to a girl, 'whom one of the sisters brought up as her own daughter'. As she cried out in pain, the warders taunted her about the much greater pain which awaited her. Felicitas answered: 'Now I suffer what I suffer; but then Another will be in me who will suffer for me, because I too am to suffer for him.' Going into the arena Felicitas rejoiced about her safe delivery: she was going 'from blood to blood, from midwife to gladiator, to find in her second baptism her childbirth washing'. She was gored by a heifer and eventually dispatched with a sword.
In recounting those days in prison and the martyrdom it is amazing how much the women's concern for their bodies marks the telling of the story. We hear about their food, their clothing, their breast-milk, their birthing pains, their breast-feeding. There is hardly another account from the ancient world that concentrates with such detail on women's bodies as central to their identities. All the classic conflicts of a woman's life appear in their stories: the desire and duty to please and obey the father against the absolute priority of following God; the sense of responsibility for and love of children against the harsh exigencies of martyrdom; the real fear of bodily pain and humiliation against the search for consolation and healing wherever it could be found. At the end they went towards martyrdom with 'gay and gracious looks, trembling, if at all, not with fear but with joy'.
The deaths of Blandina, Perpetua and Felicity revealed in no uncertain terms that they took on themselves the features of Christ's suffering. Could Christ be a Christa as well as Christus. The history of the Church manifested that its hierarchy did not wish this to be.
Not long after these martyrdoms in Carthage, Eusebius related how in the time of Origen c. 208, still under the emperor, Severus, there was a very notable female martyr, Potamiaena whose courage, faith, and prayers as she faced death actually converted her executioner. Eusebius calls her:
"The celebrated Potamiaena. . . concerning whom many traditions are still circulated abroad among the inhabitants of the place of the innumerable conflicts she endured for the preservation of her purity and chastity, in which indeed she was eminent. For besides the perfections of her mind, she was blooming also in the maturity of personal attractions. Many things are also related of her fortitude in suffering for faith in Christ; and, at length, after horrible tortures and pains, the very relation of which makes one shudder, she was, with her mother Macella, committed to the flames. . . . Immediately receiving the sentence of condemnation, she was led away to die by Basilides, one of the officers in the army. But when the multitude attempted to assault and insult her with abusive language, he, by keeping off, restrained their insolence; exhibiting the greatest compassion and kindness to her."
"Perceiving this man's sympathy, she exhorts him to be of good cheer, for that after she was gone she would intercede for him with her Lord, and it would not be long before she would reward him for his kind deeds towards her. Saying this, she nobly sustained the issue; having boiling pitch poured over different parts of her body, gradually by little and little, from her feet up to the crown of her head. And such, then, was the conflict which this noble virgin endured. But not long after, Basilides, being urged to swear on a certain occasion by his fellow soldiers, declared that it was not lawful for him to swear at all, for he was a Christian, and this he plainly professed. At first, indeed, they thought that he was thus far only jesting, but as he constantly persevered in the assertion, he was conducted to the judge, before whom, confessing his determination, he was committed to prison. But when some of the brethren came to see him and inquired the cause of this sudden and singular resolve, he is said to have declared that Potamiaena, indeed for the three days after her martyrdom, standing before him at night, placed a crown upon his head and said that she had entreated the Lord on his account, and she had obtained her prayer, and that ere long she would take him with her. On this, the brethren gave him the seal in the Lord, and he, bearing a distinguished testimony to the Lord, was beheaded. Many others also of those at Alexandria are recorded as having promptly attached themselves to the doctrine of Christ in these times, and this by reason of Potamiaena, who appeared in dreams and exhorted many to embrace the divine word."
Couldn't find a suitable cat and besides it spoilt the picture, I tried it 
