On March 7, in the year 203, a young Christian woman named Vibia Perpetua was killed in an arena somewhere in Roman North Africa. As enemies of the Roman order, Christians of the time were intermittently subjected to arrest, detention, torture and execution, often in public and in ways designed to humiliate them. For Perpetua, the authorities had prepared a wild cow. The spectacle of a terrified young woman being trampled or gored was meant to entertain the baying crowd gathered to celebrate the birthday of an imperial prince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perpetua had other ideas. In the arena, she was courageous and cool. When she was tossed by the cow, her tunic ripped. She modestly hitched up the garment, asked for a clip for her hair, which had come undone, and then went to help a fellow condemned Christian who had been knocked down. Since the cow failed to kill her, Perpetua was led to the center of the arena to be executed more conventionally. The novice gladiator assigned this grisly task at first merely wounded her so she moved his trembling hand to her throat to finish the job. She was only about 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know all this because within a few years of Perpetua\u2019s martyrdom a remarkable dossier was compiled, telling her story from arrest to death in the arena. This included a diary she had written while in prison, an extremely rare ancient account of a woman\u2019s life by the woman herself\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perpetua tells us what it was like to be in a Roman prison: the stifling heat and the press of bodies. She talks about her intense anxiety for her infant son, whom she was still breastfeeding when she was arrested. She recounts bitter arguments with her father, who was desperate for her to abandon her faith to save her life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As one Wall Street Journal<\/em> reviewer notes, Ms. Ruden makes Perpetua quite modern: \u201cI call her the twenty-first-century woman\u2019s remote ancestor.\u201d This is a self-aware martyr, assertive and vulnerable, \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[4430,4869,4953],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-65862","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-martyrdom","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice","tax_ctp_tags-service"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n