Saints' of the Week

Saint Perpetua and Saint Felicity

Feast Day: 7th March

Virtue: Courage

St Perpetua kept a diary during her last days, while she awaited her execution. Her diary,

 along with an eyewitness’s account of her death, is one of the oldest, most reliable histories of a martyr’s sufferings. This account was passed down to encourage other Christians to witness to the world with their lives – to teach others that greater than life itself is knowing Jesus and being loyal to him.

Perpetua’s account records the events that took place in Carthage, Africa, in the year 202, when the Emperor Severus issued an anti-Christian law forbidding anyone to be baptized and become a Christian. At the time twenty-two-year-old  Perpetua was a catechumen, studying to become a Christian. She was also the mother of an infant son. Perpetua was arrested along with four other catechumens, including Felicity, her slave woman, who was about to give birth to a child. All were tried and sentenced to be thrown to the wild beast in the amphitheatre during a national holiday. Their deaths would be scheduled along with sports events and various games. 

During the days before their execution, their teacher Severus voluntarily joined the catechumens so that he might die for Christ with them. Perpetua’s father a wealthy pagan, pleaded with her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods so she could be free, but she refused. She said, “Father do you see this water jar, or whatever it is, standing here?  Could one call it by any other name than what I am – a Christian.”

While they were awaiting death, Perpetua and her companions were baptized. Shortly before the scheduled execution, Felicity gave birth to a baby girl. During childbirth, she cried out in pain. Someone hearing her asked her how she would endure the suffering of martyrdom. She replied, “Now it is I who suffer what I am suffering; then, there will be another in me who will suffer for me, because I will be suffering for him.”

On the day of their execution, the martyrs left their prison “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven” and entered the arena, where they were killed before the cheering crowd. Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded; the others were killed by wild beasts. Today these women are mentioned in the first Eucharistic Prayer.

Saint Patrick

Feast Day: 17th March

Virtue: Faith

Patrick was born in Scotland in the year 387. At sixteen he was captured by pirates and

 sold as a slave to a chief in Ireland. While tending sheep in the mountains he prayed a lot.

After six years a voice from heaven told him to return to his own country. But first, he went to Rome, where he became a priest. He was then sent to England but after some time he begged the Pope to send him to Ireland. The Pope made him a bishop and then sent him as a missionary to Ireland.

One of the pagan kings of Ireland arrested Patrick. When he saw the miracles worked by Patrick, he said, “Tell us about your God. He has given you a great power.”

“There is but one God,” answered Patrick, “in three Persons: the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit.” Picking up a green shamrock he said, “Even as there are three leaves on this one stem, so there are three Persons in one God.” After that, he was allowed to preach the new Faith everywhere in Ireland. His missionaries later brought the Christian Faith to many parts of Europe.