ABSTRACT
The place of Perpetua and Felicitas within a series of profiles of prominent early Christians is unique. First, and perhaps most obviously, they are the only women. Second, and perhaps more importantly, whereas all the men profiled here are well-known through their own extensive writings, or through the detailed writings of others, Perpetua and Felicitas are essentially known only from a work narrating their horrific martyrdom in North Africa in the early third century ce that claims to incorporate Perpetua's personal diary account of her imprisonment and divinely inspired visions. Perpetua and Felicitas are by no means the only female martyrs in early Christian traditions. The accounts of Perpetua's arrest, last days, and martyrdom are usually titled Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis: some add their co-martyrs Saturus and Revocatus. The texts exist only in medieval manuscripts dating from the ninth through the seventeenth centuries.
