The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity

Author: Thomas Heffernan
Author info: Kenneth Curry Professor of the Humanities
Publication Date: June 2012
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Synopsis: One of the most widely read and studied texts composed in Late Antiquity is the prison diary of Vibia Perpetua, a young woman of the elite classes who was martyred in March of the year 202 or 203 C.E. in Carthage, as part of a civic celebration honoring Caesar Geta. She refused to recant her faith when she was arrested with other recent converts to Christianity. Imprisoned with her was her pregnant slave Felicity. Perpetua’s steadfastness in her belief led to her martyrdom, and that of Felicity, in the amphitheater. Perpetua’s prison diary is a revered text of early Christianity, and Thomas Heffernan’s new translation and commentary brings unprecedented scholarly resources to the much-loved Passion.