Maternity and Mortality: A Matricentric Reading of the Prison Diary of Perpetua

Abstract

Perpetua’s prison diary records one of the very few female voices that can still speak to us from Antiquity. This article undertakes a matricentric literary reading of Perpetua’s text in order to examine the interwoven strands of maternity and mortality that are threaded throughout her narrative. Drawing on contemporary motherhood studies and matricentric theory, the reading explores how Perpetua’s writing reflects the maternal body as a liminal space between life and death. Against the backdrop of high infant and maternal mortality rates, it becomes clear that Perpetua’s martyrdom is rooted in her maternal suffering. Ultimately, in finding that Perpetua became a martyr through, rather than despite, her maternal body, the paper explores how the text subverts the dichotomy between the virgin martyr and the married mother. To conclude, the paper advocates for the use of matricentric theory and method in historical analysis, and emphasizes the important role that patristic studies might play in the ongoing scholarly conversation about motherhood, the body, and sacrifice.