Reading Saving Paradise: Chapter 3, Part II

Perpetua and the early martyrs

Perpetua

One of many portraits of Perpetua  

made after the persecutions ceased.

Martyrs were important inspirations of faith for many Christians, and their tombs became points of contact with those who had faced Roman violence.   Early Christians did not regard martyrs as victims, but as people who manifested the power of God.  (The word ‘martyr’ means ‘witness.’)  

In the early third century, the emperor Septimus Severus decreed that all persons should sacrifice to the divinity of the emperor.  There was no way that a Christian, confessing faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ, could do this.

In Carthage (today’s north Africa), many Christians were arrested and held in prison under miserable conditions.  Perpetua, a young widow and a nursing mother, was preparing for her baptism when she was taken to prison.  Her own father had denounced her as a Christian. She was baptized in the prison,  and in the days before her torture and martyrdom she kept a journal.  Her story (the oldest existing piece of Christian literature known to be written by a woman) shows that her sense of personal authority – and her confidence in the power of the Spirit – increased after her baptism.  For Perpetua's story in her own words, go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/perpetua.html

In a dream before her martyrdom, Perpetua had a vision of the good shepherd welcoming her into paradise: elements of her dream echo the ritual of  baptism, which led candidates into paradise.  Thus, for Perpetua and others, paradise was not just a hope or promise; it was a realm she had already tasted and seen in her own baptism. 

About the same time as Perpetua’s martyrdom, images of the Good Shepherd begin to appear in the Roman catacombs.

 Jesus the Good Shepherd

A fresco in the Priscilla Catacomb, Rome - 2nd-3rd c. 

The book of Revelation has more words devoted to paradise than any other text in the scriptures – but it has a different vision of paradise than Perpetua and her fellow martyrs.  Many Christians found it a troubling text, and its images of a wrathful, punishing God were a major reason.  The book did not counsel Christians to take up arms or wage wars; it advised them to purify their communities, to be faithful unto death, and to wait for God to restore life.  But in its obsession with the dualism of good and evil, Revelation closes the door on any possibility of presence of paradise in this material world.

Rome did not die in a lake of fire as Revelation imagined.  Its slow demise came as it rotted from within and was nibbled to death by invasion.  During the early centuries of disasters and failed emperors, Christian churches formed regional systems with presbyters and deacons, headed by a bishop.  Using this system, churches shared resources and cared for members. 

Those who held fast during times of trial joined hands with the martyrs who had gone before. Their remains were cherished – interred in the catacombs and later in small round buildings. 

The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna is a splendid example of this architecture:

 The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna – 4th century

Artists and architects took the iconography of the martyr’s shrine and developed it into large-scale public worship spaces.   On the World Heritage List, Galla Placidia has been called "the earliest and best preserved of all mosaic monuments, and at the same time one of the most artistically perfect."