The passion of Perpetua - Christian woman martyred in Carthage in A.D. 203

On the anniversary replay of Perpetua's words, therefore, Quodvultdeus faced problems of a peculiar density. He phrases part of this problem rather bluntly: since there were so many men who were martyred at that time, how is it that the names of these two women are placed before those of men? Why does the day celebrate their deaths? Could it be because "the weaker sex" actually equalled, or even superseded, the bravery of males? But one of the women was pregnant, and the other was breastfeeding. Felicitas was giving birth and Perpetua was producing milk for her infant. Quodvultdeus cannot get over these overpowering images of womanly infirmity. He grasps at images. First, the milk. Since Perpetua accepted a cup of milk from the "Good Shepherd" in her vision, it is this milk that enables her to reject her child and her father on behalf of Christ. That neatly and symbolically counters, and trumps, the "weakness" of motherhood.(93) Still the bishop cannot quite accept the facts. He breaks into exclamations:

What virtue in females! What sort of grace is this, which, when one is

filled with it, judges no sex to be unworthy! Praise be to this grace! It

even restores the female sex! Woman, of course, remains in great disgrace

-- from the beginning there was the womanish sin because of which

we all die. The Devil conquered one Eve. But Christ, born from a virgin,

raises up many women. Perpetua and Felicitas were able to tread on the

head of the snake, because Eve had not been admitted into the core of

their hearts.(94) Finally, unable to do much more, Quodvultdeus, like his predecessors, lapses into Pauline doctrine: "For in Christ Jesus there will be no slave or free, no masculine or feminine, but all will be run together into one perfected man".

In another tract, also written in response to a current celebration of Perpetua, either Quodvultdeus or, perhaps more likely, a near contemporary, shows that he cannot quite come to terms with Perpetua, or her behaviour (in this case her attitude towards her father).(95) He wonders why on earth she acted in this peculiar manner. After all, he says, she was a young woman:

She was an adolescent, in the most fecund years, in that age most prone

to love (amor). She was only twenty-one, an age when the fevers of the

flesh are commonly thought to be greater than any divine charity. But,

because of God's grace, she spurned her new body, her new strength,

and so was able to exercise the powers of a young man. That is to say, the divine grace of God plus the submission of the woman overcame otherwise permanent feminine fragilities. Even so, Quodvultdeus once again returns to the "womanly weaknesses" -- given this fundamental fault, how on earth were their deeds possible. After all, "a baby son clung to the breasts of this young woman: indeed a heavy burden of maternal care attached to her breasts". This leads him to dilate on the feminine problems that Felicitas suffered: "Felicitas was seriously weighed down by her pregnancy: her womb was in its eighth month ... nevertheless, aided by her own prayers and those of her companions, she gave birth safely, since it would not be possible to abort without dying". He goes on to remark that Christ can hasten births, or delay them to the ninth or tenth month, if necessary. Felicitas, in his eyes, only suffers as she should: "Felicitas in giving birth paid off the age-long debt in suffering and pain which Eve had incurred".