motivation of perpetua's martyrdom.pdf

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

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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