The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity by Thomas J. Heffernan

is rather wavering as she feels unable to decide which version, Greek or Latin, is earlier, whereas almost all modern scholars opt for the priority of the Latin one. makes some good observations as to how Augustine and Quodvultdeus wrestled with Perpetua’s gender fluidity.Ĭhapter 3 (47–65) studies the complicated question of the genre of the Passio. Nothing in the Passio suggests that Perpetua has become ‘holy’ in fact, individuals are not mentioned as ‘holy’ before the end of the fourth century.

persuasively rejects a Freudian and psychoanalytic reading of Perpetua’s final vision of her transformation into a male, it is hardly true that ‘when women become men, this is the mark of holiness’ (39). She well observes how unusual it is that Perpetua depicts herself as an athlete and interestingly charts the changes in meaning of patientia and its development into a positive quality. discusses the gender and athletic aspects of the Passio. In fact, there is no recent discussion of the Passio and Acta that has taken this observation into account. Hoppenbrouwers, Recherches sur la terminologie du martyre de Tertullien à Lactance (Nijmegen, 1961) 88, who concludes that ‘il semble bien que A (= I) est contemporain, ou peu s’en faut, de la Passio et des premiers ouvrages de Tertullien’.

naturally mentions the Acta, but she has not taken into account the detailed martyrological and hagiographical analysis of Acta I by H. 6 Regarding the manuscript tradition, she rightly prefers the Latin version as original, but correctly notes that the Greek translation goes back to a version preceding our earliest extant Latin manuscript 7 such a situation is not unique, as we find a similar case in the transmission of the Passio Scilitanorum. rightly takes into account the different prose rhythms and clausulae of the various parts of the Passio, as these have been neglected by recent students of its Latin. Thus, for example, the readers are left to decide who actually wrote the Passio: three authors (the editor, Perpetua, Saturus) or one author who edited pieces from others. well presents various points of view, but rarely is able to decide which one is more probable. studies the text, authorship and the problem of authenticity. Does this approach shed new light on Perpetua? Barbara Gold (henceforth: G.) aims at elucidating the time of Septimius Severus from the Passio and the Passio from its time. The Passio Perpetuae has been a booming business in the last decade, as we have had three translations, 1 a collection of articles, 2 two studies of its reception in the early church, 3 a number of articles, 4 and even a graphic history.

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity by Thomas J. Heffernan