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American Academy of Religion
The Motivations for St. Perpetua's Martyrdom
Author(s): Mary R. Lefkowitz
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Sep., 1976), pp. 417-421
Published by:
Oxford University Press
Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1462814
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JAAR
44/3
(1976)
417-421
The Motivations
for St.
Perpetua'sMartyrdom
MARY
R.
LEFKOWITZ
Abstract
Psycho-historicalanalysis
of
TheActs
of
SS.
Perpetua
and
Felicity
indicatesthat the reasons
why Perpetua
was
willing
to
give up
both her life
and
her infant child in the service of her
faith were
political
and emotional as well as doctrinal. The
possibility
within the
third-century
Church
of fraternal
friendships
with
men,
and visions of their continuation after
death,
offeredrelieffromthe
demands
of
an intense
relationship
with her
father,
andthe
power(ordinarily
available
only
to
men)
to orderthe
pattern
of her existence and environment.
N
case thereis someone herewho does not know
by
heartthe
story
of St.
Perpetua'smartyrdom,
let me summarize
briefly
how and whatwe know
about
it. A narratortellsus abouta
group
of Christians
who wereexecuted
in
Carthage
in
203, including
Vibia
Perpetua,
"a
newly
marriedwoman of
good
family
and
upbringing
.
.
about
twenty-two years
old
.
.
with an infant son at
the
breast";
with
heris her
brother,
also a
Christianconvert
(2.1-2).
The narrator
then
quotes directly
from
Perpetua's
own
memoirs,
which
consist of heraccount
of her
imprisonment
and of the dreamsshe had in
prison;
shetellshow her
father,
who has remaineda
pagan,
pleads
withherto abandonher
religion
andtriesto
get
the
authoritiesto let her
out;detailed,explicit
visions tell hermeanwhilethatshe
must die. The narratorthen tells the
story
of her fellow
martyrs
and
their
joint
execution:
they
were
exposed
to wild beasts in the
arena; Perpetua
herselfwas
attacked but not
seriously
wounded
by
a wild
cow,
and
finally
killed
by
a
gladiator,
whose sword she
willinglyguided
to her neck.
As
you
can tell evenfrom this
summary,
thereis
amplesubject
matterherefor
many sermons,
as
BishopAugustine
of
Hippo
knew.' The Acts
of
SS.
Perpetua
'Augustine
Sermons 280-82
(P.L.
38.
1280-86);
Tertullian de An. 55. 4 cites
Perpetua's
testimony
as evidence for the
privileged position
of
martyrs
in heaven.
This
paper
is based on discussions with Dr. JoAnn Fineman and Susan Miller Havens. I am
grateful
to Prof. Morton
Smith,
Drs. Bennett Simon and
Jay
Katz,
and Mr.
Clayton
Fant for
suggestions
and criticisms. All citatione from Acts of the Christian
martyrs
are from Herbert
Musurillo's text
(Oxford:
Oxford
University Press, 1972).
MARYR.
LEFKOWITZ
is Professor
and
Chairman
of the Greek and Latin
Departments
at
Wellesly College,
and a Director of the American
Philological
Association. Author of a book and
numerous articles and reviews on Greek
lyric poetry,
she is co-editor
(with
Maureen B.
Fant)
of
Women in
Antiquity,
a collection of
readings
from Greek and Roman
sources,
which will be
published by
Hakkert later this
year.
417
418
MARYR. LEFKOWITZ
and
Felicityis,
of
course,
a
documentthat is meantto convertand
persuade,
and
as suchshould
be considered
no more
directly
historicalor
objective
than
Angela
Davis'
autobiography.2
But the
story
even so can tell us muchabout the
working
beliefs of the
early
church and in
particular
about the
experience
of a female
martyr.
In this
paper
I wouldlike to
suggest,
on the basis of her
autobiographical
account,
that
part
of the
appeal
of the new
religionlay
in its
encouragement
to the
convert to break traditional
family
patterns,
and in its
promise
of
enabling
the
convert to share in a new existence in a more
egalitariancommunity.
In herdreamsand in her
life, Perpetuagives up
herold
family
fora newone
of
brothersand sistersin
Christ:
she refusesto
give
in to her
father,
who visits
her
twice in
prison,
and
finally
throws himself at her feet in
despair;
she never
mentionsher brotheror hermotheraftershe sees in herdreamthat she must
die,
and she allows herfatherto take her
nursingbaby
from her. Wecan
recognize
in
Perpetua's
resistanceto her father and
gradual
withdrawalfrom her
family
the
standardbehavior
pattern
of
conversion;
a wish to breakwith the
past,
a needto
substitute
strong
new ties thatcan
replace
the old. The
martyrsAgape,
Irene,
and
Chioneof Salonica
(we
are
told)
"abandonedtheirnative
city,
their
family,
their
property,
and
possessions
because of love of
God,
and their
expectation
of
heavenlythings,"
and to avoid their
persecutors
went for two consecutive
years
(303
and
304)
to live with each other on a mountain. One thinks of Lucius
in
Apuleius'Metamorphoses,
who after his dreamof Isis and transformationback
into human
shape,
does not
go
home
again,
but
joins
a
priesthood
thatservesand
respects
thefeminine
power
he once triedto controlandto
exploit.
Jeromeadvises
Heliodorus,
who wants to become a
monk,
to
trample
his fatherunderfootif his
father
lies down on the
doorstep
to block his
passage
(percalcatumpergepatrem,
Ep. 14.2).
So
Perpetua's
fatherthrowshimselfat herfeet
(5.5),
and she dreamsof
treading
on a snake to climb a
ladder
to
heaven
(4.6-11),
and of
stepping
on the
head of an
Egyptian
who
opposes
her in
single
combat
(8.7).
The
metaphor
in
Jerome'sadviceand in
Perpetua's
dreamsis the
same,
but it is
noteworthy
that in
Perpetua's
case the
aggressive
child is a woman.
Thereis a distinctive
emphasis
in storiesof
Christian
women's
martyrdom
on
separation
from the
family
and on deathas a meansto life.
Pagan
women
martyrs
were
celebrated
by
their
contemporaries
for theirdefianceof
tyranny
and
loyalty
to their
husbands,
and
courage
in the face of death.3
One
thinks
especially
of
Arria,
thrusting
the sword into her
breast,
and
saying
to her husband in
encouragement,"Paetus,
it doesn'thurt"
(Pliny, Ep. 3.16.3).
Arria's
immortality,
like
Octavia's,
consists
only
of
being
assured of continued
fame,
through
celebrationof her
achievementin
literature,
Pliny's
Letters,
Tacitus'Annals. The
Christians
Perpetua,Agape, Irene,
and
Chione
die
courageously
butin noticeable
isolation from their
families,
in
defiance
of,
rather than
in
loyalty to,
their
husbands or fathers.4We find in the stories of the
Christian
women
martyrs
a
20n
the
historicity
of the
text,
see H.
Delehaye,
Les Passions
des
Martyrs
et
Les Genres
Littiraires (Brussels,
1921), pp. 63-73;
R.
Aigrain, L'Hagiographie (Poitiers, 1953) p. 203;
and
esp.
E. R.
Dodds, Pagan
and Christianin an
Age of Anxiety (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity
Press,
1965), pp. 47-53,
who
suggests
that unconventional elements in the
narrative,
such as
Perpetua'sdreams,
are indications of its
authenticity.
3Fannius
(Pliny,
5.
5)
and Titinius
Capito (8. 12)
wrote
martyrologies;
cf. the
increasing
concentration on death
scenes
in
Tacitus' account of the
reign
of Nero.
4Cf. also
the
story
of the
slave
Sabina,
who was bound and cast out on the mountains
by
her
mistress and rescued
by
fellow
Christians
(Pionius, 9.4);
and the isolation of a Christian woman
accused of
adultery
but
ultimately
rescued
by
other Christians
(Jerome,
Ep. 1);explicit bodily
torture
and
savage
male accusers are standard elements in these stories.
ST. PERPETUA'SMARTYRDOM
419
toabandon
young
infants:
Perpetua,
whoatfirstis
concerned
forher
nursingbaby(3.6-7)
and
isrelieved
surprising
eagerness
to
keephim,
afterher
dreamaboutthe snakeand the ladderand a confrontationwithher
father,is
miraculously
to
getpermission
"andas God
willed,
the
baby
wanted
no moreof the
breast,
nordid
they(her
breasts)
give
me
fever,
so thatIwasnot
tormented
by
carefor
the
baby
orthe
pain
in
my
breasts"
relievedof her
responsibility,
(6.8).Felicity,
the
slave
girl
whois
imprisoned
along
with
her,
prays
thatshe
may
bedeliveredofherchild
in
timetobeexecuted
along
withthe
others,
and
rejoices
whenshedoes
in
fact
give
birthto
a
little
girlprematurely
(15.1-2).Similarly,Eutychia,
oneof the
women
triedin
Salonica
along
with
Irene,though
sevenmonths
pregnant,
insists,
in
spite
of
danger
of
imprisonment
and
death,
to
keep
the faith
(3).
To celibate
male
scholars this behavior
may appear
less remarkable
(or perhaps
more
commendable)
than it does to us. It
might
more
accurately
be viewedas an
abnormal,
extremeformof social
protest:
wecan
compare
theaccounts
in
Greek
myth
of
groups
of Thebanwomenwhofledto themountains
to
worship
a new
theirhomesand
children,
and
in
somecaseseven
murdering
theirsons.
Euripides
god, abandoning
in the Bacchae
portraysAgave's
conditionas
a kind
of
insanity;
modern
anthropologists
would
compare
it to the sudden
ecstatic
experiences
that
bringoppressedgroups
a sense
(albeittransient)
of
politicalpower.5
Werethe Christianwomenwhofledtheirfamilies
byrushing
temporary
to
their
babies,
also
seeking
a newfreedom
fromthetraditional
patterns
of theirlives?
Thatthe natureof thesewomen'sconductwas
regarded
as
something
more
than
simple
impiety
the
wilderness,
orto
prison,abandoning
Irene,
because
she
hadconcealedforbiddenwrittenmaterialbeforeshe "ran
away"
into the
wilderness,
is indicated
by
thenatureof their
punishment:
issentenced
tobe
placed
nakedinthe
brothel,
ona subsistence
diet
(5).
to let his
gladiatorsrape
the
Christian
Potamiaena,
butthenhasherexecuted
byhavingboilingpitchpoured
dropbydrop
overdifferent
parts
of her
body(3).
As
in
thecaseofthewomanwho
murdered
The
judgeAquila
in Alexandria
(ca.
210)
threatens
sister
in
Apuleius
andiscondemned
to be mounted
by
the
jackass
in the
arena,
male
superiority
mustbe
publicly
reasserted
her
husband,child,
andhusband's
norms
-
asCreon
says
to
Antigone,
"while
I'm
alive no woman will rule me"
(525).6
In
Perpetua's
case,
wherethe
principalantagonist
is not a Roman
governor,
but
ratherherown
father,
there are also sexual overtones. Her dreams reveal
a
concern with
destroying
threatening
male
figures:
she treads
upon
a snake
(4.6)
and in herfinal
vision
becomes a man
in
orderto
step
on the headof an
Egyptian(8.11-14).
The
explanation
of the
repeatedmetaphor
of
trampling
becomes
apparent
when we
rememberthat her
father,
in theirlast
interview,
threwhimselfat herfeet
(5.5).
In
her dreams there is a
curiously
consistent
association of feet with
power:
she
describeshow the
Egyptian
"triedto
get
hold of
myfeet,
but I
keptstriking
himon
the face with the
heels of
my
feet"
(10.
1).
In her
descriptions
of the kind deacon
who leads her to
victory,
and
of the trainerwho
presides
over her successful
contest,
shecallsattentionto their
sandals,
"elaborate"
incaseoffemaleattackonfamilialor
governmental
(10.1)
and
"complex,
made
from
gold
and
silver"
(10.7).
Her desire to
compete
in these dream-contests
successfullyagainstherfatherindicates
that,
in her
perception
at
least,
morethan
theologicalissuesare involvedin her
martyrdom.
As Marie-Louisevon Franzhas
shown in her
Jungiananalysis,
Perpetua's
deathis in
part
a resultof anadolescent
5See I. M.
Lewis,
Ecstatic
Religion (Baltimore: Penguin, 1971), pp. 30-32,
66-99.
6Cf.
also
Creon's
admonition re
Antigone
and
Ismene,
"from
now on
they
must be women
and
not let loose
(i.e.,
out-of-doors)"
(578-79,
with Jebb's
note).
420
MARY R. LEFKOWITZ
rejectionnecessary
for
personal
individuation.7
Buttheconsistent
emphasis
in the
narrative on sexual definition
suggests
a more
specific motivation,
what
psychotherapists
call "unconscious
incest,"
a
closeemotional
pairing
of fatherand
daughter,
whichresultsfrom a
desperateattempt
to
keep
a
disintegratingfamily
together.8
You will recall
that whilethe narratorof
Perpetua'sstorysays
that she
was
honorablymarried,
her husband is nevermentioned
by name,
and
appears
nowherein the narrative.Becauseshe
appears
to be in her father's
custody,
we
might
assumethat she is widowedordivorced.More
noteworthy
thanthe absence
of herhusbandis the
shadowy
role
playedby
hermotherin the
story(she
seemsto
be
imprisoned
with
Perpetua
at the
beginning,
and
Perpetua
turnsthe child over
to her
care, 3.7;
the father
begs
Perpetua
to think of her
mother;
thereafterthe
mother
disappears
from the
narrative).Perpetua's
main concern
throughout
is
with herfather
("for
a few
days
I
gave
thanksto the Lordthat
I
was
separated
from
my father,
andwas comforted
by
his
absence,3.4);
shefeels
pity
for
him,
she tries
to console him
(5.5-6, 9.3).
She recordsfirst his
rage ("he
moved towardme as
though
he would
pluck my eyes
out,"
3.3),
then his sorrow
("pity
me
. .
. if I am
worthy
to be called
yourfather,
if I havefavored
you
aboveall
yourbrothers,"5.2;
"withtearsin his
eyes
he no
longer
addressedmeas
daughter,
butas
woman,"non
filiam
sed
dominam, 5.5).
But her
reply
to his
plea
is
remote,
"itwill
all
happen
. .
as God wills"
(5.6),
and she
accepts
death
eagerly,
as the narrator
observes,
"she
screamedas she was struckon the
bone,
then she took the
trembling
handof
the
younggladiator
and
guided
it to herthroat.Itwasas
though
so
great
a
woman,
fearedas she was
by
the
unclean
spirit
could not be
dispatched
unlessshe herself
were
willing"
(21.9-10).9
Similar
patterns
of actions and reactionsare found in
unconscious
(and
conscious)
incestuous
father-daughterrelationships:
theabsent
husbandand the absent
mother,
and to
replace
her,
theclose emotional
pairing
of
the
daughter
with the
father,
and the
daughter's
eventual withdrawaland self-
destructive
behavior,e.g.,
the case of
Ilse,
who
put
herhandin the
burning
stove
andsaidto
her
father,"look,
thisis to show howmuchIlove
you."'1
St.
Dymphna,
according
to the
legend,
after her father lost his wife and decided to take his
daughter
as
her
successor,
fled from Irelandto
Belgium,
whereshe founded
(not
inappropriately)
a mental
hospital;
in the Frenchtaleof the
Donkey-skin,again
it
is the
daughter
who must find an
escape,
and atone for her
predicamentby
disfiguring
herself.
"In
patriarchalsociety,
ancientand
modern,
the
guilt
for an
incestuous
relationship
is
(remarkably)
felt
only by
the
younger,
passivepartner:
self-destruction or
self-negation
in some form
results,
suicidal
depression,
inability
to have a maturesexual
relationship
with another
man.12
7M.-L.
von
Franz,
"Die Passio
Perpetuae"
in C. J.
Jung,
Aion
(Zurich, 1951), pp.
389-495.
8See
R. D.
Laing,
Politics
of
the
Family
(New
York: Random
House, 1972), pp.
12-15.
9Cf. the scene
in
Euripides' Hecabe,
where
Polyxena
bares her breast to receive her
executioner's sword in an
ambivalent desire
to
avoid
becoming
a slave-concubine
(557-570),
and
the
emphasis
on
sexuality
in Prudentius'
description
of the death
of St.
Agnes, Peristephanon,
14.
74-78.
'0L.
Binswanger,
"Insanity
as Life-Historical Phenomenon and as Mental Disease: The Case
of
Ilse" (orig. publ. 1945),
in Existence
(New
York: Basic
Books,
1963).
"On St.
Dymphna,
the tale of the
Donkey-skin,
and similar
stories,
see H.
Guinter,
Psvchologie
der
Legende:
Studien zu einer
wissenschaftlichen Heiligen-Geschichte (Freiburg,
1949), pp.
54-56. Note also that it is
Myrrha,
not
Cinyras,
who is blamed in
the
story
and
who
undergoes metamorphosis (Ovid, Met.,
10.
298-502).
12See
Lustig,
et
al.,
"Incest: A
Family Group
Survival
Pattern,"
in
Discussion,
Adult
Seduction
of
the
Child,
Medical
Aspects of
Human
Sexuality (March, 1973);
confirmed in
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