RUTILIUS, AFTER MANY ESCAPES, TORN ASUNDER, AND THEN BURNT, FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, ABOUT THE YEAR 210.
“Rutilius, the holy martyr,” says Tertullian, “after having so often escaped persecution by fleeing from one place to another, and having purchased his freedom, as he supposed, from the danger of death, and after having provided himself with all safe-conduct, and, feeling easy, and free from anxiety, was nevertheless unexpectedly apprehended, and brought before the President, yea, torn asunder with manifold torments, and then committed to the fire; and thus, thanking the mercy of God for it, he endured the suffering which he had sought to escape.” “This Rutilius was martyred somewhere in Africa,” writes A. Mellinus, 1st book of the Hist., fol. 55, col. 1, from Tertullian. de Fuga, in Persecutione, cap. 5, at the end.
MAVILUS, A PIOUS CHRISTIAN OF ADRUMELEN, TORN BY THE WILD BEASTS, AT CARTHAGE, ABOUT THE YEAR 201.
Tertullian writes a very candid admonition and warning concerning the impending wrath of God over all the persecutors of the Christians, to Scapula, the Governor of Carthage, who, having succeeded in the place of Vigellius Saturninus (who, on account of the persecution he had exercised against the Christians, had been struck with blindness, through the righteous judgment of God), also followed in his footsteps as regards cruelty. For at his accession to the Governorship, he immediately very cruelly sentenced Mavilus, a very pious Christian of Adrumelen, a city in Africa, to be torn by the beasts; who, though through a severe death, attained to a blessed end. Immediately after his death great plagues were sent by the Lord over the city of Carthage, where the Governor resided; as, great rains, high floods, terrible thunders, fiery signs in the air, etc. Idem Ibidem, col. 3, ex Tertullian. ad Scapulam, cap. 3.
PERPETUA AND FELICITAS, OF TUBURBI IN MAURITANIA, AND OTHERS, VIOLENTLY PUT TO DEATH, FOR THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, ABOUT THE YEAR 201.
Perpetua and Felicitas were two very pious and honorable Christian women, at Tuburbi, a city in Mauritania, a province of Africa. Both were very untimely apprehended, to suffer for the name of Christ, as Felicitas was very far advanced in pregnancy, and Perpetua had recently given birth to a child, which she was nursing. But this did not make them faint-hearted, nor so surprise them that they forsook Christ, nor did it prevent them from going on in the way of godliness; but they remained equally faithful disciples of Christ, and became steadfast martyrs.
According to the Roman laws, they waited with the pregnant woman, until she was delivered, before they sentenced her and put her to death. When the pains of labor seized her in prison, and she cried aloud for fear and anguish, the jailer said to her: “Thou art so much afraid and distressed now, and criest aloud for pain; how then wilt thou behave, when, to-morrow, or the day after, thou wilt be led to death?” Felicitas replied thus: “Now I suffer as a poor woman the punishment which God on account of sin has laid upon the female sex; but to-morrow I shall suffer as a Christian woman for the faith and the confession of Jesus Christ.” By these words she sufficiently indicated that she had firmly and immovably founded her faith upon Christ, who never forsakes his own, even though they be in the midst of the fire, and are consumed, God also specially strengthened her, that she might be able to endure her sufferings. With reference to this, Tertullian says: “Perpetua, the very strong and steadfast martyr, had a revelation or vision of the heavenly paradise, on the day of her suffering, in the which she saw none but her fellow-martyrs. And why no others? Because the fiery sword which guards the door of paradise gives way to none but those who die for Christ.”
In the meantime these two pious heroines of Jesus Christ were martyred, that is, they died a violent death, for the name of their Savior; for which they will afterwards be crowned with the unfading wreath of immortality, as a triumph over the foes they overcame, namely, the cruelties and pains of death.
The names of their fellow-martyrs are: Revocatus, Satyrus, Saturninus, and Serundulus. It is supposed that the last-mentioned one of these died in prison from extreme hardship, but that the others were all thrown before the wild beasts, such as, bulls, lions, bears, leopards, etc., to be torn by them. Thus these exchanged their dear lives for death, for Christ’s sake. Idem., fol. 26, col. 3, 4, ex August. in Psal. 74, and de Tempore Barbarico, cap. 5, Beda Usuard. Ado Martirol. Rom. 7. Martii. Also, l. Pregnatis de Pen. Also, in Antiquo Lectionario. Also, Tertull. de anima, cap. 5. That the dead bodies of the two aforementioned women were brought to Carthage, and were buried there is testified to by Victor Uticensis, Pers. Vandal., lib. 1.