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Perpetua - Sarah Ruden

By Sarah Ruden

Release Date: 2025-02-09

Genre: Biographies & Memoirs

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An intimate and human portrait of Perpetua, a third-century woman author who was idealized as a Christian martyr
 
On March 7, 203, in the monumental amphitheater at Carthage, Vibia Perpetua was one of five Christians who met their deaths after refusing to venerate the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and his son. Perpetua stood out from the other four, and in fact from all the other martyrs of her era and before: she was an aristocratic married woman with an infant son, and she is the first female prose author whose work survives.
 
Offering a probing new translation of Perpetua’s extraordinary prison diary and situating the life behind that diary within the turbulent late Roman Empire, Sarah Ruden tells the story of Perpetua’s remarkable feat of self‑invention as a martyr. As she builds on Perpetua’s own words and integrates them into their religious and historical contexts, Ruden shines a light on Perpetua’s disarming candidness, her brashness, and her naĂŻvĂ©tĂ©. In contrast to traditional portrayals of the saint as a brave but submissive young woman, Ruden’s narrative reveals a complex individual who flaunts a vivid public persona as a martyr while at the same time navigating the emotions of a mother, daughter, sister, and friend approaching death.

Perpetua - Sarah Ruden

By Sarah Ruden

Release Date: 2025-02-09

Genre: Biographies & Memoirs

(0 ratings)
Read Download
An intimate and human portrait of Perpetua, a third-century woman author who was idealized as a Christian martyr
 
On March 7, 203, in the monumental amphitheater at Carthage, Vibia Perpetua was one of five Christians who met their deaths after refusing to venerate the Roman emperor Septimius Severus and his son. Perpetua stood out from the other four, and in fact from all the other martyrs of her era and before: she was an aristocratic married woman with an infant son, and she is the first female prose author whose work survives.
 
Offering a probing new translation of Perpetua’s extraordinary prison diary and situating the life behind that diary within the turbulent late Roman Empire, Sarah Ruden tells the story of Perpetua’s remarkable feat of self‑invention as a martyr. As she builds on Perpetua’s own words and integrates them into their religious and historical contexts, Ruden shines a light on Perpetua’s disarming candidness, her brashness, and her naĂŻvĂ©tĂ©. In contrast to traditional portrayals of the saint as a brave but submissive young woman, Ruden’s narrative reveals a complex individual who flaunts a vivid public persona as a martyr while at the same time navigating the emotions of a mother, daughter, sister, and friend approaching death.

More by Sarah Ruden

Confessions

Paul Among the People

The Gospels

The Golden Ass

The Aeneid

The Face of Water

Vergil

Reproductive Wrongs

Perpetua

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