Felicity

Saint Felicity (Latin Felicitas), commonly called Felicity of Carthage to distinguish her from the later-attested Roman martyr Felicitas, was an enslaved Christian catechumen put to death in the amphitheatre of Carthage in the early third century. Almost everything that can be said of her with historical confidence comes from the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis), a Latin martyr narrative of unusual value. Large parts of that text are presented as Perpetua’s own prison notes; other sections are attributed to an eyewitness redactor, often associated with the circle of Tertullian. The Passio names Felicity among a group of catechumens arrested at Carthage together with the young noblewoman Vibia Perpetua, the catechist Saturus, and the companions Revocatus, Saturninus, and Secundulus. The persecution is placed in the reign of Septimius Severus; the games at which they died are said to have been given for the birthday of the emperor’s son Geta, a setting that Christian tradition and most modern historians date to 7 March 203.

At her arrest Felicity was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Roman practice forbade the execution of a woman with child, and the Passio records that she feared being left behind when her companions were killed. The group prayed that she might be delivered in time to share their fate. She gave birth to a daughter in the prison, after a difficult labour that a guard used as an occasion to mock her. A Christian woman then took the infant to raise. Like the others, Felicity was baptized while still imprisoned. The narrative does not name a husband, nor does it give her parentage, age, or place of birth; as an enslaved person in Carthage she may or may not have had a legally recognized marriage, and those details remain unknown. That she bore a living child is, however, explicit in the source.

Condemned to the beasts, the prisoners were brought into the amphitheatre. According to the Passio, Felicity and Perpetua were matched against a mad heifer. Felicity was thrown and wounded; Perpetua, also gored, helped her to her feet. After the animal attacks, the surviving martyrs were put to the sword. The text emphasizes the two women’s mutual encouragement and their death together. Secundulus had already died in prison; the men of the group faced different beasts before the same final execution. The Passion’s concrete, unrhetorical detail is the principal reason historians treat Felicity as a real person of the Carthaginian church rather than a later legendary type.

Veneration of Perpetua and Felicity is among the earliest cults of Latin Christianity. Their names stand in the Roman Canon of the Mass; Augustine of Hippo preached on their feast; and a fourth-century inscription from the Basilica Maiorum (Mcidfa) at Carthage commemorates them, supporting the tradition that they were buried there. In the General Roman Calendar their feast is 7 March (it was for a time kept on 6 March so as not to conflict with a Lenten feria). Because of the prison birth recounted in the Passio, Felicity has been invoked as a patron of expectant mothers and of mothers more generally. Beyond the weeks of imprisonment and the manner of her death, the sources do not permit a fuller biography: her earlier life, legal marital status, and the later fate of her daughter are not recorded.