It's something of a miracle that we know anything about St. Perpetua. She died very young, at the age of 22, and lived most of her years in Carthage, North Africa, far away from the great cultural centers of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch.
Not only that, the time in which she lived, is sometimes called a century in the shadows because so little archaeological or documentary evidence survived the persecution of those years. Perpetua, in fact, fell victim in one of those purges. Yet thanks to her prolific writing—which in itself is unusual for a woman of her time—we know a remarkable amount about her, the Church of the second century, and the martyrs of her day.
We celebrate her feast on March 7. She is the patron of mothers, expectant mothers, ranchers, and butchers.
