Felicity
A catechumen, described as the fellow-servant of Revocatus, who was arrested while pregnant, gave birth in prison and died in the arena with Perpetua.
The Passion names her among the young catechumens arrested together and calls her the fellow-servant of Revocatus, which suggests that both were slaves (Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 1.1). She was eight months pregnant. Because the law did not allow a pregnant woman to be executed, she feared that she would be held back and die later among criminals. Her companions prayed, and she went into labour three days before the games. When a guard taunted her for crying out, she answered that now she suffered alone, but in the arena another would be in her to suffer for her. She bore a daughter, whom a Christian woman brought up as her own (Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 5.2).
She entered the arena with Perpetua, was thrown down by the same animal, and was killed with the sword with the rest (Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 6.1–4).
In the timeline
- 7 March AD 203, estimated dateThe Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity
A group of newly baptised Christians is put to death in the arena in Roman Africa, among them the young mother Perpetua and Felicity, who gave birth in prison. The account preserves Perpetua’s own prison diary and her visions.