Saints Perpetua and Felicity

Hagiography:

One hundred years before Sts. Sergius and Bacchus were martyred, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were also publicly executed by Roman authorities for refusing to recant their Christian faith (along with a handful of men who have been mostly forgotten by popular devotion). In recent years, some have begun to consider them patron saints of lesbian love--or perhaps matron saints, a word which takes men out of the equation altogether.

If I'm being honest, I don't think Perpetua and Felicity were lovers in real life. However, as a lesbian, I fully support them as matrons and protomartyrs of lesbians. Their story comes from an extremely rare historical source: the autobiographical account of a woman (Perpetua) describing her personal experience in prison and highlighting her devotion to suffering with her female companion over her relationships to the men in her life, including her father, husband, and son. Most scholars accept the narrative as authentic, if edited and possibly censored to conform to men's expectations. Perpetua also describes a vision in which she is transformed into a man and is victorious in the gladiatorial arena--the eventual site of her martyrdom where, alongside Felicity, she was mauled by a wild female cow before being beheaded.

Lesbophobia is the intersection between homophobia and misogyny. It is separate from, but similar to, the homophobia experienced by gay men. Even women who are not lesbians can experience lesbophobia (for example, being called a "dyke" for being "too masculine" or for prioritizing their female friends over men). Perpetua, as a free Roman citizen, could exercise considerable power over others (within gendered restrictions). Rather than continue to exercise that power, she chose to die a martyr's death alongside Felicity, who was enslaved. The early Church was not a utopia free of all hierarchy, but it did anticipate the classless, stateless, egalitarian society of the Kingdom of God, and Felicity and Perpetua wrote their testimony of the Kingdom with their own blood. Women, whether or not they are lesbians, continue to suffer from patriarchal violence. May Felicity and Perpetua pray for all women facing this violence today and in the future until all things are made right in the Resurrection.

Iconography

• "You judge us but God will judge you" is a line from their martyrdom account. The prisoners say this to the Roman official who has condemned them to death in the gladiatorial arena. This is written on papyrus, which was an everyday writing material for all classes of people in ancient Rome.
• In this icon, I have depicted Perpetua and Felicity as a "butch/femme" couple. Not all lesbians present themselves in this way, but my wife and I do. Butch lesbians are sometimes thought to be "steel hiding velvet" (tough on the outside, soft on the inside), while femmes are often thought to be "velvet hiding steel" (soft and pretty, but don't mess with them).
• The saints are framed by palm fronds, which are a traditional symbol for martyrs.