St Perpetua Analysis

Countless times thought St. Perpetua’s story, there were instances that she was able to see signs from God that conclude to her fate being sealed. In one instance, in Perpetua’s vision, she saw “a brazen ladder of wondrous length reaching up to heaven, but narrow that only one could ascend at once” (Musurillo, 71), and little further it goes on to describe that “there were swords, lances, hooks, daggers, so that if anyone went up carelessly or without looking upwards he was mangled and his flesh caught in the weapons” (Musurillo, 71). The ladder symbolizes her journey to God, and the weapons on the sides symbolize how she gets to him. With all the Christians being sentenced to death, they must not all go up together, but separately to God, and without looking back on the life they left behind. Being a part of the Christian community, Perpetua believes that everything she does is an act for God, and when

Perpetua was not ashamed of being a Christian, even when confronted by her father she explained that a water pot cannot be called anything than what it is “so also I cannot call myself anything than what I am, a Christian” (Musurillo, 70). Perpetua does not mean to hurt her family, but she believes so much in the visions that God sent her that she must not turn away from them. Perpetua’s father told her to lay aside her pride to say she is not Christian, and though she felt for her father she knew “it shall happen on that platform as God shall choose; for know well that we lie not in our own power but in the power of God” (Musurillo, 72). Perpetua is understanding at the fact she knows she will die in that arena, and that she is not afraid, so her family shouldn’t be afraid either. Perpetua made it clear she was not afraid of who she was, or what she believed in, and made it celar that anything to happen to her was for a