Perpetua’s journal finishes with an amazing dream where she fights and defeats a great warrior in the very arena where she was scheduled to die the following day. As she awoke from her dream, an overwhelming sense of peace flooded her. “I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil,” she stated. But her final words betrayed her full confidence in Christ.

The jeers from the crowd in the arena were overwhelming as Perpetua and her friends quickly took in the sights and smells from the Carthage arena.

This was it. Their moment.

A few weeks prior, new believers gathered for worship and fellowship. Perpetua, a 22-year-old, wealthy, married woman who had recently given birth, joined with her friends Saturninus, Secundulus, Revocatus, and Felicitas. Given the cultural moment, they were well aware they were under the watchful eye of the magistrate and asked the church to baptize them. A few days after boldly declaring their faith in Christ in the water, soldiers came and arrested the members of their small group and took them away to their death.

In one of the earliest testimonies written by a woman, Perpetua kept a journal of her time in prison. She records how her father came and pled with her to think of her son, her mother, and her family. Could she not simply renounce Christ for the sake of her family? Pointing to a simple water pitcher in her cell, she asked, “Can it be called by any other name than that which it is?”

He answered in the negative.

“So neither can I call myself anything other than that which I am, a Christian,” Perpetua replied. With this response, her father left her and Perpetua steeled herself for her impending judgement from the magistrates.

The day of sentencing came. Perpetua and her friends were marched along with other Christians to the public forum. The tribunal attracted a large crowd and, one by one, the Christians were asked to renounce Christ. None did. Person by person, they confessed Christ alone as their Lord and King.

As Perpetua moved toward the front of the line, she saw her father who began again to plead with her to renounce her new-found faith and offer the sacrifice to the prosperity of the Emperor. As Perpetua stood before the tribunal, she confidently declared, “I am a Christian!”

With her public confession joining the chorus of other believers being judged that day, the governor sentenced them to death in the arena—to be put to death by beasts at games in celebration of the Emperor’s birthday. Perpetua records that they all “went cheerfully back into the dungeon” to await the fateful day.

Perpetua records moments of intense prayer both alone and along with the other believers as they waited. They fellowshipped and encouraged each other in their faith. In answer to their prayers, Felicitas gave birth to the child she was carrying when they were arrested. They found favor with the soldiers who managed the prison and many of them came to faith in Christ.

Perpetua’s journal finishes with an amazing dream where she fights and defeats a great warrior in the very arena where she was scheduled to die the following day. As she awoke from her dream, an overwhelming sense of peace flooded her. “I understood that I should fight, not with beasts but against the devil,” she stated. But her final words betrayed her full confidence in Christ.

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