Ss. Perpetua & Felicity (6 March) - Have Courage!

[Music] me so today march 6 is the feast of saints perpetua and felicity martyrs in the early church in the year 203 in the city of carthage that's modern-day tunisia perpetua was a young noblewoman 22 years old with a newborn son and her slave felicity was eight months pregnant and the account of their imprisonment and martyrdom is the firsthand account of perpetua herself so she was living at this time with her father who was a pagan she was honorably married but there's no mention of of her husband and at also at this time there was a decree of the emperor no new converts to the faith not an act of persecution against uh catholics but nobody could convert that was a capital offense uh but perpetua was was convinced along with her slave felicity she was convinced of the truth of the church and she insisted on going through with her baptism and her father was upgrading her for foolishly putting herself at risk and bringing shame upon the family name and in arguing back and forth perpetua pointed to a water jog and asked her father see that pot lying there can you call it by any other name than what it is her father answered no and so perpetua responded neither can i call myself by any other name than what i am a christian and we should keep in mind too that this when we hear the word of the term christian in the early churches referred to catholics right which is the only true christians there was no difference christian catholic it was one faith and one baptism it's only been in the last 500 years that we have this widespread seemingly difference between catholics and christians it's supposed to be the same one fold one shepherd only the catholic church are true christians so anyways her father was so enraged at this answer that he began to physically assault her and she had to flee his presence shortly thereafter she and her slave felicity were baptized and then sir enough imprisoned for having defied the edict so for uh perpetual rights that she was placed in the filthiest part of the prison so crowded with people that the heat was suffocating she mentions that there was no light anywhere and she had never known such darkness despite the fact that she and she was separated from her infant son which he writes was very grievous to her and despite her you know youth 22 years old and a noblewoman and felicity was eight months pregnant the guards were very rough pushing and shoving them no regard to their condition so the guards um friends her friends or family bribed the guards to move them to a better part of the prison they were able to see visitors who encouraged them perpetua was allowed to have her infant son back which she writes caused her the greatest relief and comfort and they were also imprisoned with several others who had been baptized along with them fellow catechumens and also saturus who had been their instructor in the faith he was either a priest or a deacon he had instructed them and although he was not he did not need to be imprisoned he voluntarily went with them into prison and to certain death so perpetua prayed fervently in prison about what was to happen to them her brother encouraged her he said that um you know you have given so much for god what did you say something like now that you have um you have the ability to have visions pray for it you know pray that god will give you an inclination will you be released or will you suffer and so perpetua prayed fervently about what was to happen to them and she received a vision which she writes down she said that in this vision she saw a golden ladder of the highest length reaching up to heaven and on the sides of the ladder were swords lances hooks and daggers and if anyone climbing up this ladder looked away at anything other than heaven they would be pierced by these sharp weapons and at the bottom of the ladder was a large dragon who by his roaring attempted to scare away those who would journey to heaven so in this vision perpetua sees saturus her instructor go up first and he reaches the top and then calls out to her perpetua i wait for you but take care that the dragon does not devour you she responded in the name of jesus christ he will not hurt me and as she said this the dragon put his head down and was quiet perpetua then travels at the ladder herself and she reaches heaven and she saw upon arriving a vast and beautiful garden and in the middle was a shepherd very tall with white hair he was tending the sheep and he said to her thou art welcome my child and he gave to her some sweet curds and milk and as she ate and drank the milk and curds there was a large crowd around her and they all shouted amen and then she woke from this vision and she still had a sweet taste in her mouth and by this she understood to mean that she and her companions would not be released but that they would die a painful death but afterwards they would enjoy the sweetness of heaven so a perpetua's father came to her in prison and begged her to give up the faith and thus save her life but she refused saying that we lie not in our own power but in the power of god and she was brought before the judge who tried all manner of ways to convince her and the others to deny their faith but they refused they would not deny christ and thus they were sentenced to be thrown to wild beasts in the arena now felicity for her part by now nearly nine months pregnant was in great distress because the day set for the martyrdom was before the day she was supposed to give birth and according to roman law pregnant women could not be put to death she greatly wanted to accompany her companions on their way to heaven and was afraid that they would leave without her her fellow martyrs also did not want to leave such a good and courageous companion behind and so they all fervently prayed that she might give birth beforehand that they might all be martyred together right up to the very end i would like to pause here on the irony that such vicious pagans who were throwing people to wild beasts would scourge people to death who had all manner of slavery and vices had such respect for unborn life even if the mother was guilty of a crime the child in her womb was understood to be innocent and so to kill the child with the mother would itself be a crime and so here we have our modern world calling itself civilized yet it cannot even understand the simple truth which even those ancient pagan barbarians recognized and i will say that the wrath of god is going to fall upon those who call themselves catholic and yet support abortion these cruel pagans will rise up on judgment day and condemn those catholics in name only and drag them down to the infernal torments of hell for all eternity anyways two days before her execution felicity went into labor their prayers had been answered as she was delivering her child in great pain the guards these pegging guards mocked her saying if you think you suffer now how will you stand the wild beasts felicity answered them i suffer now but in the arena another will suffer for me because i will be suffering for him by whom she meant christ who would be who would give her the strength to face her martyrdom and by this we should understand that christ is not going to lessen every pain in this life uh but if the moment comes for that where our suffering on which our suffering depends our salvation he will give us strength so do not fear martyrdoms or great suffering to come in the future when the time comes god will give us that strength and he will lessen our pain that we may endure it so on the day of the games uh the martyrs were led into the amphitheater to the mocking of the crowd but perpetual and felicity and their two companions held their heads high for they knew the dignity of christ's grace in their soul they were at first scourged by gladiators and then wild beasts were set upon them uh the men actually perpetua and felicity were separated from the men uh the men were attacked by a wild boar a bear and a leopard and the two women perpetuum felicity a a wild heifer with huge horns was introduced into their part of the arena the men for their part were torn by these beasts but not killed and likewise perpetua and felicity were tossed about and greatly wounded by this this wild heifer but neither did they die either the account is given that perpetua as after she'd been grievously wounded reached down and covered herself with her the gown she had on to preserve her modesty and straightened her hair still dignified even in the midst of this torture this went on for some time until even the cruel crowd could no longer stand such a spectacle and so they called for them to be killed by the sword and so the animals were driven out of the arena and the martyrs gladiators came in and dispatched the um the martyrs now felicity and perpetua were clinging to each other in the arena comforting each other till the end and felicity was killed but perpetua she got a novice executioner he was a newer gladiator and uh either that or he just he just was was fearful or ashamed at what he was doing but in trying to dispatch her failed and he wounded her grievously several times until she herself finally took his sword and put it at her neck and that act of bravery uh was recounted throughout churches for centuries afterward uh it was actually read alongside a scripture so thus these martyrs valiantly gave their lives for christ uh saint augustine says that these two women amidst fierce beasts and swords of the wicked vanquished the devil and all his fury so uh our lesson is uh really how can we neglect to suffer for christ how can we complain in the midst of our petty sufferings the the the little irritations of this life the inconveniences how can we complain especially if we think that it is our suffering in these little circumstances with generosity and courage that will enable us to suffer the greater ones later if and when they come and i would say these days more than ever we have reason to believe we will need courage in the future so are we doing our part now to practice to prepare for that day we do that not by suffering great things now but by suffering very many little things for it is that repeated uh repeated uh sacrificing of the will the the um suppressing of those those um passions of anger of selfishness of pride we work on those now and then the time comes and god can fill us with his invincible grace uh so let us pray to all the martyrs but especially uh saints perpetua and felicity and their companions that we might imitate their great virtue great courage and especially their great love for christ which was a source of all the other virtues so god bless you all in the name of the father son of the holy ghost amen [Music] so

Channel: Sensus Fidelium

Views: 2,340

Keywords: st augustine, carthage, martyrs, pregnant, catholic, christian, jesus christ, rome, god, lord, prayer, mother, devotion, religion, honor, fortitude, strength

Id: e9LgRkWQCC4

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022