Saints Perpetua and Felicity are the patron saints of mothers, expectant mothers, widows, ranchers, and butchers. Novena to Saints Perpetua and Felicity is prayed for nine consecutive days by pregnant women for safe delivery.
Saints Perpetua and Felicity were heroic North African female friends who were martyred in the third century for their Christian faith. Some regard them as lesbian saints or patrons of gay and lesbian relationships. Because she had a dream about being converted into a man, Perpetua is sometimes referred to as a transgender saint.
About Saints Perpetua and Felicity
Vivia Perpetua was twenty-two years old, married, a noblewoman, and a new mother with a nursing baby. Her pagan father pleaded with her to abandon her Christian beliefs, but she refused. When Felicity was imprisoned, she was a slave who was also expecting a child.
A few days before her martyrdom, she gave birth to a child. In Carthage, her infant would be reared by Christian ladies. Perpetua wrote the events leading up to her martyrdom in her own hand, and an eyewitness to her death completed the text later.
Felicity was in agony as well. It was against the law to execute pregnant women. To kill a child in the womb was to bleed sacred and innocent blood. Felicity was terrified that she would not be able to give birth before the date designated for their martyrdom and that her friends would have to continue on their trek without her.
Her pals didn’t want to leave her behind because she was such a great comrade. Felicity went into labor two days prior to her execution.
The martyrs left their prison “joyfully as though on their way to heaven” on the day of their execution and entered the arena, where they were slain in front of a cheering throng.
Perpetua and Felicity were slaughtered by wild monsters, while the others were beheaded. Today, the first Eucharistic Prayer mentions these women.
During her final days, as she awaited her execution, St. Perpetua kept a diary. Her diary, together with an eyewitness description of her death, is one of the most ancient and trustworthy accounts of a martyr’s sufferings.
This tale was passed down to urge other Christians to use their lives to tell others that knowing Jesus and being devoted to him is more important than life itself.
The dramatic account of their deaths was so compelling that it was meticulously preserved across the centuries and has survived to the present day.
Only a few records from the early Church predate Perpetua and Felicity’s passion account, aside from the New Testament writings themselves. Perpetua, Felicity, and Polycarp’s stories must pique our interest for the rest.
The narrative of Perpetua and Felicity was recited so regularly in public liturgies in North Africa that Saint Augustine, a North African bishop who lived two hundred years after their martyrdoms, had to remind his flock that the narrative was not on par with Scripture itself.
Facts
Novena Starts: February 26th
Feast Day: March 7th
Died: 203
Significance of Saints Perpetua and Felicity Novena
The 7th of March is their feast day. Perpetua and Felicity were both arrested for being Christians, imprisoned together, and died together on March 7, 203. Their feast day always falls on March 8, the day before International Women’s Day.
Read more: St. Josemaria Escriva Novena
Saints Perpetua and Felicity Novena
Day 1
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 2
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: St. Alexander Novena
Day 3
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 4
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 5
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: Fulton Sheen Novena For Canonization
Day 6
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 7
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 8
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 9
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
your love enabled the saints Perpetua and Felicity
courage to endure a cruel martyrdom.
By their prayers, help us to develop in love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever
Amen
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: St. Louis de Montfort Novena
