Vibia Perpetua and her Christian faith
Around 203 CE, a young noblewoman named Vibia Perpetua was executed in the North African city of Carthage for refusing to make a sacrifice to the Roman emperor. Perpetua believed that a sacrifice to any deity besides her Christian god contradicted her faith. And she volunteered to die rather than submit to this Roman ritual.
Perpetua’s story is striking because of the life she was willing to renounce and the death that she chose. She was a noblewoman with a father who loved her and who came to her in prison, beseeching her to compromise at least a little bit on her faith. Perpetua describes her father’s plea thus. My father, out of love for me, was trying to persuade me and shake my resolution. Father, said I. Do you see this vase here for example, or water pot or whatever? Yes, I do said he. And I told him, could it be called by any other name than what it is? And he said, no. Well, so too, I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian.
Perpetua still refuse to perform public sacrifices even though she had a very young son and her death would leave him motherless. Her father appealed to her sense of family. Perpetua recounts, my father appeared with my son, dragged me from the step and said, Perpetua, perform the sacrifice. Have pity on your baby! Even in the amphitheatre, the Roman authorities offer her yet one more chance to return to her family unharmed by sacrificing to the emperor. The governor said to me, have pity on your father’s grey head. Have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperors, I will not, I retorted.
The image of the young mother choosing death over a compromise in her faith shocked the Roman authorities and continues to bewilder many today. But in the context of North African Christianity, a community tormented by Roman persecution at this time. The image of Perpetua stealing herself and remaining faithful to Christ became a symbol of steadfastness and spiritual fortitude to be emulated. Her death was a triumph, granting her immortality in heaven. And she undertook her sacrifice cheerfully. The editor of her diary recorded Perpetua and several of her Christian companions thus. The day of their victory dawned. And they marched from the prison to the amphitheater joyfully, as though they were going to heaven with calm faces. Trembling if at all with joy rather than with fear. Perpetua’s death was ultimately portrayed as her decision, not that of her Roman captors. She took the trembling hand of the young gladiator and guided the sword to her throat. It was as though so greater woman could not be dispatched unless she herself were willing as our editor puts it. Her death mirrored the passion of Christ, the ultimate death for a Christian to emulate.
