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The passion of Perpetua - Christian woman martyred in Carthage in A.D. 203
Past & Present, May, 1993 by Brent D. Shaw
needed to defeat the Devil -- that women were able to lay low that old
enemy, who, through woman, utterly defeated man. Augustine goes on at some length to play on this theme of role reversal, explaining how the Devil, who made women weak to defeat men, is in turn defeated by these selfsame weak creatures: "He [God] made these women able to face death like men, to die on behalf of those who were destined to be born so sorrowfully from women". As proof of this interpretation Augustine is able to appeal "to what the blessed Perpetua herself narrated in her own words concerning her vision: that she struggled with the Devil after she had been changed into a man". He is then able to close this first circle of his argument: it was a good thing that the Devil "who had defeated man through woman should not be able to escape these ambushes -- good that he was able to feel that a woman was fighting with him like a man".
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This logically leads Augustine into a consideration of another highly problematic area of Perpetua's account (remembering that his parishioners, and others, would have heard her own words) and one which is the burden of his sermonizing. This was the problem of her unorthodox ("unorthodox" that is from the perspective of current ideology) relationships with persons who should have been dominant males: her husband and her father. As already stated, there is nothing in her own words that gives any hint of the existence of her husband. Augustine explains:
He [the Devil] did not trouble her with a husband, so that she, who was
already dwelling on heaven in her higher thoughts, would remain strong,
not being drawn aside, blushing even at the merest suspicion of desires
of the flesh. But he inculcated in her father words of deceit so that her
godly mind, which could not be softened by the instincts of sexual desire,
might be broken by the bonds of parental piety. Likewise, in her relationship with her father, Augustine has to tone down the nature of her replies to him: "When holy Perpetua replied to her father, she did it with such moderation that she would not violate the command by which we owe honour to our parents". He then turns his attention to the other female, Felicitas:
Felicitas was indeed pregnant when she was in jail. In giving birth she
gave witness to her feminine condition with her female voice. The penalty
of Eve was not absent, but the grace of Mary was also present. She had
to pay the dues which women owe. He goes on to explain that all she did and happened to her (that is, the premature birth of her child) was due to the "plan of God". In thus addressing his congregation, Augustine was being more specific about the context in which Perpetua was to be understood. Her actions, as well as those of Felicitas, were to be seen within a theodicy rooted in the creation of all existing conditions. Her powers could then be "explained" as an overcoming of inherent faults and weaknesses through "the grace of God".
In his final (surviving) sermon on the matter, Augustine refers once again to the reading of her account which everyone has just heard, and then remarks:
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