[소논문] The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and Spiritual Practice: Reading the Ancient Martyrdom Narrative for Today’s Korean Christians

Korean Journal of Christian Studies(한국기독교신학논총) Vol. 129에 게재한 글의 전문을 옮겨 놓는다. 

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The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and Spiritual Practice:

Reading the Ancient Martyrdom Narrative for Today’s Korean Christians
 

Hyeokil Kwon*

 

 

I. Introduction

              

Does a classic narrative still have practical value for today’s readers? Are the thoughts in an ancient narrative appropriate for today’s context? The answers to these questions may vary depending on each narrative and context. It must be noted that some classic narratives have recently been reappraised from today’s perspective and, as a result, have been modified or eliminated from recommended reading lists.[1] Then, can the ancient martyrdom narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, which is considered by many scholars as a Montanist document,[2] benefit today’s readers? Is the narrative helpful or dangerous for “orthodox” believers?[3] Does the passion narrative need to be adapted to today’s reader’s system of thoughts in order to be regarded as a “beneficial” classic writing?

 

The goal of this research is not to examine the historical features of the churches of the time of Carthage in order to defend the passion and martyrdom narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas from the suspicions of a “heretic” document.[4] Joyce Salisbury has already argued that at the time of Perpetua, “The church in Carthage had not yet split into such clear distinctions” between the orthodox and the heterodox and that “religious sensibilities of the two groups were very similar in 203.”[5] Rather, I will argue the narrative’s value for today’s readers as a useful means to deepen their understandings of spiritual practice to be witnesses of Christ. I believe that the process of the passion and martyrdom of the two women was that of spiritual practice and growth. Therefore, exposing the elements and dynamic of their spiritual practice will help contemporary readers to understand not only an ancient spiritual practice, but also today’s spirituality of martyrdom, specifically the spirituality of North Korean Christianity[6] which is under severe persecution and producing many martyrs. Also, contemporary readers can use the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas as a resource for spiritual practice.

 

To achieve such a goal, I will mainly use a literary approach and focus on the contents and dynamic of the narrative. Yet, I will also refer to some useful outcomes of historical research. First, I will analyze the spiritual practices in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, which I will then compare with the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). Finally, I will examine the potential power of the passion narrative for a spiritual practice, not only for ancient readers and but also for today’s Korean readers.

 

 

II. Spiritual Practices in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas

 

In this part, I will analyze the spiritual practices in the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, in order to prove the nature of the two women’s passion and martyrdom as a continuum of spiritual practices. According to Alvyn Pettersen this narrative “does present to the reader the acts of inner self-discipline which the true follower of Christ in North Africa was then expected to adopt in the pursuit of virtue and perfection.”[7] He writes that the core of the inner self-discipline is a spirituality dependent upon imitatio Christi. However, I will argue that the spiritual practices in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas are not limited to inner self-discipline but are also expanded to contemplation in a communal life.

 

Perpetua and Felicitas were among a group of young catechumens who were arrested and martyred in 203 in Carthage during the time of persecution of Christians by Septimus Severus, a Roman Emperor who ruled from 193 to 211. The narrator of the Passion introduces Vibia Perpetua as a newly married woman from a good family. She was about twenty-two years old and was breastfeeding her baby when she was imprisoned. As for Felicitas, she was a young slave in the eighth month of pregnancy when she was arrested. Felicitas miraculously gave birth to a child about two months prematurely so that she could be martyred with her companions.[8]

 

1. Baptism: Confessing One’s Identity as a Christian, a Forgiven Sinner

 

For Perpetua and Felicitas, baptism – including the preparation procedures for baptism – was a spiritual practice to discover and to confess their identity as purified sinners. Sara Parvis thinks that at the time of Perpetua, catechumens, people preparing for baptism, were not yet expected to confess themselves as Christians. They were still “unsure of themselves, and perhaps unsure of their loyalty.”[9] Thus, for them, the period of preparing for baptism was the time to find their identity as Christians. In Chapter 3 of the passion narrative, Perpetua confidently confesses her identity as a Christian saying “I cannot be called anything other than what I am, a Christian”[10] just a few days before her baptism. Such a connection between baptism and identity is easily found in many Christian writings.[11] Then, what does it mean to confess one’s identity as a Christian?

 

In the study on Perpetua’s passion narrative, Tertullian (c.160 – c.220) is an important figure in that he is regarded by many researchers as the author of the Passion and a contemporary of Perpetua who also came from Carthage. He understands that the significance of baptism is in the purification from sins. In his treatise “On Baptism,” Tertullian writes that Christian baptism is the sacrament of water, in which “the sins of our early blindness” are washed away.[12] Thus, he strongly urges those who are about to be baptized to pray repeatedly with a confession of all their sins. Interestingly, he concludes this treatise with his identity as “Tertullian the sinner.”[13] Therefore, for Tertullian, and maybe also for Perpetua, receiving baptism means confessing one’s identity as a Christian, a purified sinner, and experiencing the forgiving grace and power of the Lord. In this sense, the process of preparing and receiving baptism is not only a liturgical event but also a part of their continuous spiritual practice to find their identity and to experience God’s forgiving love.

 

2. Temptation: Detaching from Bodily Satisfaction and Hope

 

In the last chapter of his treatise “On baptism,” Tertullian writes about what Christians should do after the reception of baptism. He interprets Jesus’ temptation after his baptism as an example which shows that Christians should not search for bodily satisfaction but ought to be satisfied with what is from God. Also, he argues that “temptation incident to fullness or immoderation of appetite are shattered by abstinence.”[14] Therefore, Tertullian exhorts his readers to detach from bodily pleasures by practicing self-control after baptism. Similarly, Perpetua writes, “I was inspired by the Spirit not to ask for any other favour after the water [baptism] but simply the perseverance of the flesh.”[15] It seems that such a record was influenced by the story of Jesus who was led to the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1) and that, as we can see in Tertullian’s writing, the perseverance or abstinence amid the temptation after baptism was a generally required spiritual practice of that time.

 

In the Passion, the temptation came to Perpetua in two ways. First, she was tempted with physical suffering and the threat of death. Although she did not yield to the physical temptation, she admits it was a very difficult time. After her first vision, through which she and her companions realized that they would suffer and die, they “no longer had any hope in this life.”[16] More painful was the other temptation, Perpetua’s worry about her infant son and family. Her aged father was both furious with her and also begged to her with tears to sacrifice to the Roman Emperor. Although this temptation could not make her deny her identity as a Christian, it threw her into a deep anxiety. She records that “I was in pain because I saw [my family] suffering out of pity for me. These were the trials I had to endure for many days.”[17] However, in the end, she was relieved of any anxiety and tried to comfort her family. Sara Parvis interprets her concern for her family, not only for the living people but also for her dead brother Dinocrates whom she saw in her second and third visions, as “building the family of God.”[18] In other words, this is a movement from the family of flesh to the family of God. Such a movement is an aspect of her spiritual growth.[19] Consequently, in the passion narrative of Perpetua, the perseverance amid the temptation after baptism is a gradual spiritual practice, through which one detaches from the search of bodily satisfaction or comfort and moves from the hope in this world to the hope in heaven. This is the process of healing and reorientation of disordered desires.

 

3. Passion and Martyrdom: Fighting as a Solider of Christ against the Devil: Contemplation

 

For Perpetua, Felicitas, and their companions, to choose passion and martyrdom is to fight against the devil as Christ’s soldiers. In Perpetua’s fourth vision, which she had the day before their martyrdom in an amphitheater, Perpetua suddenly became a male warrior fighting against an Egyptian. She trampled the head of the enemy and defeated him. After awakening from the vision, Perpetua realized that she would fight not with wild animals but with the devil in the amphitheater and would win. Also, in the account of their martyrdom, the narrator reports that the martyrs desired martyrdom out of their own free will and depicts the martyrs as heroines and heroes who won victory in the battle against the devil.

 

It must be noted that the narrator describes the martyrdom as “a second baptism.” Specifically, Felicitas, who had just given birth and would fight the beasts, was “going from one blood bath to another, from the midwife to the gladiator, ready to wash after childbirth in a second baptism.”[20] Therefore, preparing for martyrdom, the second baptism, is a formational process of one’s identity as a solider of Christ. Also, Tertullian gives more information on the conception of the second baptism in his treatise on baptism. According to him, the second baptism is bathing in the blood and drinking the blood sent out from the wound of Christ.[21] Thus, the second baptism is a participation in the passion of the Christ and the act of witnessing, by Christians’ blood, Jesus who shed his blood for the salvation of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:26). In this sense, martyrdom as the second baptism is not a one-time event, but a summit of gradual spiritual practices that started with the preparation of the first baptism. In the process towards martyrdom, a Christian finds and freely chooses to embody one’s identity as a solider of Christ, a witness of Jesus.

 

In addition, the passion and martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas can be understood as contemplation. In a sense, contemplation is abiding in God’s presence in mutual love or union with God, not only in prayer but also in action. Also, in many Christian writings, contemplation has been expressed in the bridal symbol of a spiritual marriage with Christ. The narrator describes Perpetua, in the scene where she goes to the amphitheater to be martyred, as “a wife of Christ.”[22] This may be the reason for the narrator’s silence regarding Perpetua’s husband, as well as that of Felicitas. It seems that the narrator intentionally omits her husband in the Passion in order not to confuse the image of Perpetua as a wife of Christ.[23] Also, Perpetua says to her father that she and her companions are not left to themselves, but in God’s power. She experiences God’s presence and power even in the darkest dungeon. Similarly, Felicitas confesses her strong belief that when she suffers for the Lord, he also suffers for her inside her. Such a mutual suffering is another expression of mutual comfort and love. For the women, therefore, martyrdom is a space for union with God.

Indeed, the narrator writes that in the amphitheater, Perpetua had been so absorbed in ecstasy in the Spirit that she was not aware that she had already been thrown to the heifer. In this sense, Alvyn Pettersen contends, “Perpetua was identified in this her second baptism with the crucified and glorified Christ. Yet that identification was not a thing ‘acquired.’”[24] Thus, it can be said that the identification with Christ, or the union with God, which the two female martyrs seem to experience on the day of their martyrdom, is an infused Contemplation. According to Thomas Merton, the infused or mystical contemplation, to which one can reach through the path of “ascetic self-denial,” is an ecstasy in which “the gap between our spirit as subject and God as object is finally closed, and in the embrace of mystical love we know that we and He are one.”[25] It seems that such a union was given to Perpetua and Felicitas who were in mutual love and suffering with Christ in the amphitheater. It is the culmination of their spiritual practice.

 

4. Others: Resurrection and Community

 

In the dynamics of the spiritual practices in the Passion, there are other elements which should be mentioned. In the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, the author also contains another figure’s narrative. Saturus, who is conjectured as the catechist of the young catechumens by some researchers, is arrested with the others and has his own vision in prison in which Saturus and Perpetua die and enter into heaven. He writes, “All of us [they and other martyrs] were sustained by a most delicious odour that seemed to satisfy us. And then I woke up happy.” Probably, all of his companions in prison knew Saturus’s vision and meditated upon it. It seems that the young Christians tasted mystical happiness and joy through the meditation on the vision. This helped them to detach themselves from bodily satisfaction and advance toward martyrdom.

 

In addition, spiritual practice in the Passion is not limited just to inner self-discipline but expanded to a communal practice. Baptism in the early third century of Carthage was a twofold public confession: first, a confession of one’s sins and then a confession of one’s identity as a Christian, a forgiven sinner. According to Tertullian, when Christians receive baptism, they “publicly confess [their] iniquities or [their] turpitudes”[26] Therefore, baptism is a becoming a member of a new community. From this perspective, Salisbury contends, “The narrative of Perpetua was dominated by family attachment to the new community that had become her family.”[27]

 

 Also, in their second baptism, martyrdom, Perpetua and Felicitas did not fight alone. The scene in which Perpetua gives her hand to Felicitas to lift her up and then stands with Felicitas side-by-side symbolically shows the martyrs’ solidarity in the process of passion and martyrdom. Moreover, in the Passion there are other scenes which report their communal practices, for example, a love feast on the day before their martyrdom. This means that in the narrative, baptism, temptation, passion, and martyrdom as spiritual practices were conducted in the bond of communal love and faith. For the martyrs, those were public and communal practices.

 

 

III. Comparison with the Spiritual Exercises

 

In this part, I will compare the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas with the Spiritual Exercises from the perspective of spiritual practice. The Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, is one of the most well-organized manual for spiritual practice in Christianity. The Spiritual Exercises is a compilation of various materials, so it is impossible to examine the entire dynamic of the Exercises in detail in this limited paper. Hence, I will simply summarize the general dynamic while laying emphasis on each Week’s main subject, in order to compare it with the dynamic of the spiritual practice in the Passion.

 

1. Dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.

 

The basic dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises is based on two mutual loves which move toward one another. According to Michael Ivens, a renowned commentator of the Exercises, “The dynamic of the exercise turns on the two meanings of the love of God, God’s love for us and ours for God.”[28] Although this is a comment on “the Contemplation to attain love,” which concludes the Exercises, it also applies for the whole dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises. The reason is that the Contemplation to attain love is “a highly condensed form [of] the very kernel of the Exercises.” [29]

 

As seen in Table 1, the Spiritual Exercises is composed of four Weeks which have specific materials. Although all the Weeks flow in the movement of the main dynamic, the two mutual loves, there are specific aims in each Week which are expected to be attained by most exercitants.

 

Table 1. Structure and dynamics of the Spiritual Exercises

Week	Contents	Dynamics
1st	Principle and Foundation
	Examen	Beloved and forgiven Sinner
	Five Meditations on Sins
2nd	The Kingdom
	Infancy Contemplation
	Two Standards, Three Classes	To Choose freely to follow Christ
	Meditations on the public life of the Christ
	Three Kinds of Humility, Election
3rd	The Passion	Compassion with Jesus’ passion
4th	The Apparitions and Resurrection	Joy with Christ’s resurrection
	The Contemplation to Attain Love	Mutual Love and Commitment

 

The First Week consists of three contents: Principle and Foundation, Examen, and Five Meditations on Sins. The Principle and Foundation is both the introduction and navigator which points out the ultimate goal of the Exercises. Through the Examen and the Five Meditations on Sins, the exercitants are expected to find themselves as beloved sinners. “The graces of the First Week evolve from a more objective awareness and understanding of sin and its effect, to a deep personal realization that she [or he] is a loved and forgiven sinner.”[30] Also, this First Week is generally understood as a process of purification and detachment.

 

The Second Week, which has seven contents, is the most complicated. However, the seven contents are classified into two groups: first, meditation and contemplation on the life of Christ; and second, preparing and making the Election.[31] In this Week, two kinds of materials are interwoven strategically, and all of them lead the exercitants to choose to follow Jesus more freely. “The grace of the Second Week, a deepening relationship with Jesus, offers new ways of knowing, loving and following.”[32]

 

In the Third Week and Fourth Week, exercitants are invited to the paschal mystery, i.e., Jesus’ passion and resurrection. According to Michael Ivens, the main subjects of the Third Week are compassion with Jesus and confirmation of the Election.[33] The exercitants, who choose a certain specific life situation in the former Week, confirm the decision by sharing the sufferings of Jesus.

 

Finally, in the Fourth Week, they experience the grace of joy, which flows from the resurrection of Christ. Such joy prepares them for the ascent to the summit of the Exercises, i.e., the Contemplation to attain love. In this Contemplation, Ignatius exhorts exercitants “to ask for interior knowledge of all the great good I have received, in order that, stirred to profound gratitude, I may become able to love and serve his Divine Majesty in all things.”[34] Here exists the threefold dynamic, which consists of interior knowledge, profound gratitude, and loving service.[35] If the exercitants experience an interior knowledge of Jesus, as well as of what God has given them through all the Weeks of the Exercises, naturally their gratitude for those graces becomes deep. As such, they cannot restrain themselves from loving God with their whole heart and freely choose to serve God, not by fear, but by love. They, therefore, pray with these words:

 

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and all my will—all that I have and possess. You, Lord, have given all that to me. I now give it back to you, O Lord. All of it is yours. Dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace, for that is enough for me.[36]

 

In this sense, the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises, which starts from the Principle and Foundation, reaches the summit of itself in the Contemplation to attain love. An exercitant’s “disordered affections,”[37] referred to in the Principle and Foundation, find their ordered direction toward God’s love and will, and all of her or his faculties of the soul pursue to unite with God’s love and will at this culmination.

 

It must be noted that the exercitant’s love toward God should be expressed in action which gives all God’s gifts back to the Lord. Ignatius emphasizes, “Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words.”[38] Thus, it is not an exaggeration to say the action is both the finishing touch of the whole exercises and the exercitants’ response to the grace of the Spiritual Exercises. Clearly, the ultimate object of the Spiritual Exercises is to love God and serve the Lord according to God’s will in one’s everyday life.

 

2. Dynamic of the Spiritual Practices in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas

 

As examined above, the dynamic of the spiritual practice in the Passion starts with the preparation of baptism. Perpetua and her companions were catechumens who prepared the reception of baptism. The preparation of baptism is the period of finding and confessing one’s identity as Christians – i.e., sinners – as well as the period of purification of their sins. Thus, in the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, baptism is the culmination of the preparatory spiritual practices and of the conversion process, but also a new start towards the higher goal of martyrdom.

 

Although Perpetua could confidently confess that she was a Christian, it did not mean that she was completely free from temptations. Like Jesus who was tempted after his baptism, Perpetua, a newly baptized Christian had to face temptations. It can be said that to undergo temptations is an extension of the purification which started in the preparation of baptism. However, purification in temptation is different in that it is about detachment from the pursuit of bodily satisfaction and hope in this world. In this process, to meditate on resurrection and the life in heaven helps Christians in the purification of their disordered desire by letting them taste the bliss of heaven.

 

 Also, the meditation on the afterlife supported the young Christians with the power to endure their sufferings in this world. Paradoxically, in the Passion, they were not passive victims but active soldiers of Christ, who freely chose to participate in Jesus’ passion and witness his blood through their second baptism of martyrdom. Thus, passion and martyrdom in the narrative are ways to find and to embody another Christian identity, that of a soldier of Christ. In this sense, Elizabeth A. Castelli writes that “in the diary, the question of identity—of Perpetua’s true self—functions as a central driving force in the literary self-portrait.”[39] The connection between martyrdom and identity is a fundamental idea in Christian martyrdom. Michael P. Jensen argues, “Martyrdom thus provides us with a unique opportunity to examine and reflect on the meaning of Christian identity and its reception in the world.”[40] Therefore, the issue of identity continues in the spiritual practices in the Passion and, at the end, reaches its peak of mystical contemplation at the moment of martyrdom. In this mystical experience, Perpetua and Felicitas are united with Christ in mutual suffering and love. In sum, the dynamic of the spiritual practices in the Passion flows toward martyrdom. Through a two-fold purification, purification of sins and purification of bodily desires, the identity of the human being is found, extended, and integrated with Christ.

 

3. Common grounds between the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and the Spiritual Exercises

 

It is very interesting that in the two spiritual practices, the Passion and the Exercises, there are many common themes: (1) Identity as sinner and soldier of Christ; (2) purification and detachment; (3) passion and resurrection; and (4) union with Christ in mission or martyrdom. First, the starting point of both spiritual practices is the identity as a forgiven sinner or a Christian. Then, the exercitants or nascent Christians go through a process of purification and detachment. Also, the participation in the passion of Christ or the imitation of Christ is a very important element to which the exercitants and Christians are strongly attracted. In addition, the two classics use military symbols of being soldiers of Christ. For example, through the Kingdom and Two Standards exercises in the Second Week of the Exercises, the exercitants are invited to participate in the army of Christ, the Eternal King, which is fighting against Satan. For the Passion, as pointed out above, Perpetua and Felicitas are warriors against the devil. When it comes to the goal of the spiritual practices, the passion narrative of the two women reaches its peak in the scene of martyrdom, a mystical union with Christ. Similarly, the Exercises aims to form its exercitants into contemplatives in action who are united with Christ in their participation in Christ’s mission[41] for the Kingdom of God.

 

Although the dynamics and elements of the spiritual practices in the Passion and the Exercises do not exactly coincide with one another, their common elements signify some important implications. First, it shows the link between spiritual practices and spirituality. The dynamics of the two spiritual practices, which move from the realization of one’s identity as a forgiven sinner towards a union with Christ in mission or martyrdom, provide the young martyrs of Carthage and the exercitants of the Exercises with active or apostolic spiritualities.[42] Also, the commonalities between the Spiritual Exercises and the Passion imply that the editor of the Passion might intend to contain not only a continuum of events, but also the process of the martyrs’ spiritual formation in order to help its readers to be formed as witnesses of Christ. Finally, although the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is the story of the specific time and place of early third century Carthage, the essence of the narrative goes beyond the limitations of time and place and has common grounds with the Spiritual Exercises, which was written in sixteenth century Spain and Rome and has been widespread in this twenty-first century. Therefore, such common grounds support the value of ancient narratives for today’s readers. In what way, then, can the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas benefit contemporary Korean Christians?

 

 

IV. The Narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas in Today’s Korean Context

 

In this short part, I will briefly examine the nature of the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas as a resource for readers’ spiritual practices and its potential value for contemporary Korean readers. This narrative was very popular in the North African church in early Christianity,[43] and is still read by some western Christians and scholars. However, few Korean Christians know the story of Perpetua or Felicitas.

 

1. The Passion Narrative as a Resource for a Spiritual Practice

 

The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas consists of Perpetua’s and Saturus’s own records of their passion and visions, with the narrator’s apologetic introduction and concluding description of their martyrdom. In the introduction, the narrator reveals the purpose of the writing (editing):

And so, my brethren and little children, that which we have heard and have touched with our hands we proclaim also to you, so that those of you that were witnesses may recall the glory of the Lord and those that now learn of it through hearing may have fellowship with the holy martyrs and, through them, with the Lord Christ Jesus, to whom belong splendor and honor for all ages. Amen.[44]

 

It is noteworthy that the narrator places the martyrs and their writing as mediators between the readers and Christ by using the biblical verses in 1 John 1. This means that the narrator intended to provide the Passion as a spiritual document, through which readers might encounter Christ. Therefore, this narrative was written not only to encourage the early Christians in danger of being martyred, but also to provide them with a material for spiritual practices. According to Salisbury, at that time “it was customary for Christians to come to the executions…to learn how to die for the faith.”[45] In this sense the Passion, which shows the passion and martyrdom of the exemplary Christians, was a living text, through which the early Christians learned how to live as discipleships of Jesus and how to die as witnesses of Christ in the time of persecution. Then, in what way can today’s readers experience Christ or engage in spiritual practices through reading the narrative?

 

Johann B. Metz contends that “narrative presses toward the practical communication of the experiences amassed in it.”[46] In other words, a narrator communicates the memory in the narrative at hand with readers beyond time and space. Therefore, by reading the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, readers can touch the martyrs’ experiences, including their mystical experiences of Christ. Immersing in the experience of the exemplary martyrs, the readers could find their identity as sinners and soldiers of Christ, are ashamed of their disordered desires, and have a new desire to be united with Christ in their passion and mission.

 

Although most Christians neither are martyrs nor partake in martyrdom, martyrdom cannot be separated from the Christian identity. Michael P. Jensen argues, “Martyrdom is the possibility latent in the Christian identity, for all Christians are called to ‘witness’ or ‘testimony’ that might result in bloody (or ‘red’) martyrdom. Every Christian, we might say, is already a martyr; for, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, ‘[T]he cross is laid on every Christian’.”[47] Thus, not only North Korean Christians under persecution, but even South Korean Christian readers, who have very little chance to be martyred, can have courage to lay down their life for Christ as the witnesses of Jesus Christ by reading and meditating on the passion narrative which communicates the young martyrs’ experience to its readers.

                     

2. How Could the Passion Narrative Speak to North and South Korean Christians?

 

Open Doors, an international non-profit organization for persecuted Christians, has classified North Korea in its 2023 report as the worst persecuting country in the world.[48] It estimates that in North Korea, there are about four million Christians, among which about seventy thousand are detained in labor camps. A number of Christians have also been martyred for their faith. In some sense, the martyrdom of North Korean Christians is similar with that of Perpetua and her companions. Many North Korean defectors, who fled to China in search of food or freedom, become Christians by contacting missionaries there. After the reception of baptism and with some education, some freely choose to return to North Korea to witness Jesus to their people, despite the risk of martyrdom. Martyrdom has been the core of the spirituality of North Korean Christianity for the past seventy years. For North Korean Christians, martyrdom is not defeat but victory, and not shame but glory. Some stories of their martyrdom have become known by the witness of North Korean defectors, like Lee Soon Ok who was a prisoner in North Korea before her conversion to Christianity in South Korea. She says,

While I was there, I never saw Christians deny their faith. Not one. When these Christians were silent, the officers become furious and kick them. At that time I could not understand why they risked their lives…I even saw many who sang hymns as the kicking and hitting intensified. The officers would call them crazy and take them to the electric-treatment room. I didn’t see one come out alive.[49]

 

These are people who, by their blood, witness Christ, like Saturus, who witnessed to a soldier before his martyrdom.

Therefore, on the basis of such similarities, Perpetua could speak beyond time and place to people suffering under severe persecution with the exhortation she gave her brothers, “You must all stand fast in the faith and love one another, and do not be weakened by what we have gone through.”[50] In other words, the passion and martyrdom narrative of the young Christians of ancient Carthage could provide North Korean Christians comfort and courage. Also, as a resource for spiritual practices, of which the goal is union with Christ in martyrdom, the passion narrative could help North Korean defectors who decide to go back to their country to serve their people.

 

As for South Korean Christians, they could re-discover their lost Christian identity as martyrs. The root of Korean Christianity is the early Christians’ endangering faith, for which they risked their lives under the persecution of Japanese Imperialism in the early twentieth century. Therefore, the rediscovery of the Christians’ identity as martyrs could be a breakthrough in the current crisis of South Korean Protestantism,[51] in that an identity as martyrs could help South Koreans restore the essence of their Christian faith. Hae-young Choi has found some significant similarities between the martyrdom of Perpetua and that of Jun-kyung Mun (1891-1950), a Korean woman martyr, and contends that their exemplary witness and martyrdom need to be inherited by today’s Christians in their witness and sacrifice.[52] The martyrdom narrative of the early Christians encourages today’s South Korean Christians not to compromise their faith by seeking worldly satisfaction, comfort, and power, but to sacrifice their profits and safety to be the true witnesses of Jesus Christ, who emptied and humbled himself to reconcile the world to God.

 

Also, through reading the Passion, South Korean Christians could gain a lens to see North Korean Christian faith and spirituality. It seems that most South Korean Christians have sympathy for North Korean believers, but a few people think that they need to learn the miserable Christians’ faith, for which North Korean Christians risk their lives. Hence, Perpetua and Felicitas would speak, through the narrative, to South Korean Christians that their brothers and sisters (the North) are not only needy persons but also exemplary Christians from whom they should learn.

 

 

V. Conclusion

 

The ancient narrative, the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, still has precious value not only because there is still martyrdom in the world, but also because the narrative communicates to today’s readers the spiritual practices of nascent martyrs and their experiences and invites them to live as witnesses of Christ. Elizabeth A. Castelli, contends that “[Perpetua’s] diary can be fruitfully read as a record of ascetic engagement, where disciplined practice and repetition generate a new identity and inaugurate a new symbolic reality.” This narrative is a precious source of spiritual practice for North Korean Christians under persecution and South Korean Christians in crisis. Fortunately, the recent publication of the Korean translation of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas helps Korean readers to access the ancient narrative with easy.[53] Finally, for further study, I refrain from an analysis of the role of structure, characters, and narrator in the Passion, that is, the way in which the narrative components present the story as a mean of a spiritual practice.

 

Keywords:

Perpetua and Felicitas, Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Practice, Martyrdom Narrative, North Korea Church

페르페투아와 펠리시타스, 로욜라의 이냐시오, 영성 훈련, 순교 이야기, 북한 교회

 

 

Bibliography

 

A. Resources on the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas

닛사의 그레고리 외. 『초기 기독교 여성 지도자들』[The Women Leaders in the Early Christianity]. Tr. by 김재현, 전경미. Seoul: KIATS, 2019.

Butler, Rex D. The New Prophecy & “New Visions”: Evidence of Montanism in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006.

Choi, Hae-young. “A Comparative Study on the Similarities of Martyrdom in the Ancient Roman Empire and S. Korea in the First half of the 20th Century.” Theology and Mission 50 (2017), 53-85.

Davis, Patricia M. “The Weaning of Perpetua: Female Embodiment and Spiritual Growth Metaphor in the Dream of an Early Christian Martyr.” Dreaming 15 (2005), 261-270.

Franz, Marie-Louise von. The Passion of Perpetua. Irving, TX: Spring Publication, 1980.

Musurillo, Herbert, ed. Acts of the Christian Martyrs. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Parvis, Sara “Perpetua.” Expository Times 120 (2009/5), 365-72.

Pettersen, Alvyn. “Perpetua—Prisoner of Conscience.” Vigiliae Christianae 41 (1987), 139-153.

Salisbury, Joyce E. Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman. New York: Routledge, 1997.

 

B. Resources on the Spiritual Exercises

Au, Wilkie. “Ignatian Service: Gratitude and Love in Action.” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 40 (2008), 1-32.

Buckley, Michael. “The Contemplation To Attain Love.” Supplement to the Way 24 (1975), 92-104.

Cooper, Michael W. “Ignatian Spirituality: Unitative Action with Christ on Mission.” Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction 2 (1996/9), 25-39.

Dyckman, Katherine, Mary Garvin, and Elizabeth Liebert. The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2001.

Ignatius of Loyola. Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works. Ed. by George E. Ganss. New York: Paulist Press, 1991.

Ivens, Michael. Understanding the Spiritual Exercises. Herfordshire, England: Gracewing, 1998.

 

C. Others

Editorial. “That’s not Twain.” New York Times. January 5, 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/opinion/06thu4.html. Accessed on March 3, 2023.

Jensen, Michael P. Martyrdom and Identity: The Self on Trial. New York: T&T Clark International, 2010.

Lixin, Wan. “Confucian tenets of good conduct relevant to schoolchildren today.” Shanghai Daily. January 7, 2011.

Merton, Thomas. The Inner Experience. Ed. by William H. Shannon. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995.

_______. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Directions, 1972.

_______. What is Contemplation? Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1950.

Metz, Johann Baptist. Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology. Translated by Matthew Ashley. New York: Cross Publishing, 2007.

Open Doors. “North Korea.” World Watch List 2023. https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/north-korea. Accessed on May 5, 2023.

Tertullian. “On Baptism.” Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325: Vol. III - Latin Christianity: Its Founder Tertullian. Eds. by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, 669-79. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1887.

The Voice of the Martyrs. Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2002.

The Voice of the Martyrs and P. Todd Nettleton. North Korea: Good News Reaches the Hermit Kingdom. Restricted Nations series. Bartlesville, OK: Living Sacrifice Book Company, 2008.

 

 

Abstract

 

Can the ancient martyrdom narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas, which is considered by many scholars as a Montanist document, benefit today’s readers? To find an answer to this question I have analyzed the contents and dynamic of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas from the perspective of the spiritual practice, using a literary approach. Then, I have compared the Passion with the inner dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola, a renowned manual for spiritual practice, in order to prove that the narrative contains the spiritual formation process and spiritual experiences of the martyrs as the witnesses of Christ. Finally, I have examined the value of the martyrdom narrative both for North Korean Christians under persecution and South Korean readers who think that they have nothing to do with martyrdom. Through this process I have contended that the ancient narrative still has precious value for Korean Christians not only because martyrdom still happens in the world, but also because the narrative communicates to today’s readers the spiritual practices of nascent martyrs and their experiences and invites them to live as authentic Christians. In sum, the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is a useful resource for today’s Christians to be formed as witnesses of Christ.

 

 

한글 초록

 

몬타누스파 문서로 여겨지는 고대 순교자들의 이야기 『페르페투아와 펠리시타스의 수난』이 그리스도교 고전 작품으로서 오늘날의 독자들에게 어떤 유익이 될 수 있을까? 이 질문에 대한 답을 찾기 위해 필자는 먼저 이 작품을 문학적 접근법을 사용하여 영성 훈련의 관점에서 분석하였다. 그리고 이 작품에 나타나는 영성 훈련의 주제들과 그 역동을 널리 인정받는 영성 훈련 교본인 로욜라의 이냐시오의 『영신 수련』의 내적 역동과 비교함으로써 이 작품에는 순교자들의 그리스도의 증인으로서의 영성 형성 과정과 체험이 담겨 있음을 증명하였다. 마지막으로 이 작품이 오늘날 박해 가운데 있는 북한의 그리스도인들은 물론, 현재 자신들은 순교와 아무 상관이 없다고 생각하는 남한의 그리스도인들에게 어떤 유익을 줄 수 있는지 살펴보았다. 이러한 과정을 통해 필자는 고대 순교자들의 이야기인 『페르페투아와 펠리시타스의 수난』이 오늘날의 한국 독자들에게 초기 순교자들의 영적 훈련과 체험을 전달하여 그들도 그러한 훈련에 참여하도록 초청하는 여전히 가치 있는 작품임을 논증하였다. 한 마디로 이 작품은 현대 그리스도인들이 그리스도의 증언자가 되기 위한 영적 훈련에 도움이 되는 유용한 자료이다.

 

---

* Visiting Professor, Methodist Theological University.

 

[1] For example, Mark Twain’s famous novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) were edited by Alan Gribben about 130 years after their first publication due to their “offensive” language. Gribben turned the word “nigger” into “slave” and “Injun” to “Indian.” “[H]e wants to make these American classics readable again — for young readers and for anyone who is hurt by the use of an epithet that would have been ubiquitous in Missouri in the 1830s and 1840s, which is when both books are set.” However, some critics believe that such editing not only damage the authenticity of Twain’s work, but also corrupts the truth of the past. Also, a controversy in China has been that some provincial education authorities banned departments and schools from teaching the famous story of Mencius’ mother moving three times in search of a good neighborhood, for fear some aspects might “distort student’s values and pollute their soul” by indoctrinating “environmental determinism.” Editorial, “That’s not Twain,” New York Times, January 5, 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/opinion/06thu4.html. Accessed on March 3, 2023.; Wan Lixin, “Confucian tenets of good conduct relevant to schoolchildren today,” Shanghai Daily, January 7, 2011.

[2] According to Rex Butler, the passion narrative of Perpetua and Felicitas is a “thoroughly Montanist document” which gives researchers the possibility to learn more about Montanism and its relationship to the early church. Montanism was an apocalyptic and prophetic movement that arose in the second century in Roman Asia Minor and was condemned by church authority. Rex D. Butler, The New Prophecy & “New Vision”: Evidence of Montanisim in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006), 130-32. 

[3] For the discussion on the orthodoxy of the Perpetua’ visions see, Marie-Louise von Franz, The Passion of Perpetua (Irving, TX: Spring Publication, 1980), 5-9.

[4] Although Butler and other researchers, who notice the Motanistic elements in the Passion of Pereptua and Felicitas, hardly devaluate the narrative, conservative Korean Protestant churches or Christians could hesitate to add the Passion to a list of Christian classics.  

[5] Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman (New York: Routledge, 1997), 158.

[6] In this paper, by using the term “North Korean Christianity,” I refer to the underground church and Christians in North Korea and not to the few official churches which were established to camouflage the North Korean government’s religious persecution and to have “a negotiating tool with South Korea” The Voice of the Martyrs and P. Todd Nettleton, North Korea: Good News Reaches the Hermit Kingdom, Restricted Nations series (Bartlesville, OK: Living Sacrifice Book Company, 2008), 83.

[7] Alvyn Pettersen, “Perpetua—Prisoner of Conscience,” Vigiliae Christianae 41 (1987), 139-140.

[8] The narrator of the Passion writes that at that time it was not legal to execute a woman with a child. Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs (London: Oxford University Press, 1972), 123.

[9] Sara Parvis, “Perpetua,” Expository Times 120 (2009/5), 367.

[10] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 109.

[11] For example, the baptism of Jesus reveals his identity as the Son of God in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:11, and Luke 3:22). Also, for Thomas Merton, the seeds of contemplation, which are given to all Christians in baptism and then at every moment, are the seeds of our own identity. Thomas Merton, What is Contemplation? (Springfield, IL: Templegate, 1950), 8; Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (New York: New Directions, 1972), 33.

[12] Tertullian, “On Baptism,” Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325: Vol. III - Latin Christianity: Its Founder Tertullian, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature, 1885), 669.

[13] Ibid., 678-79.

[14] Ibid., 679.

[15] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 109.

[16] Ibid., 113.

[17] Ibid., 111. Emphasis is my own.

[18] Sara Parvis, “Perpetua,” 370.

[19] Patricia M. Davis interprets the “cheese” in her first vision as a symbol of spiritual growth. According to her, Perpetua’s acceptance of the cheese from the shepherd in heaven might refer to “her acceptance of her own metaphorical weaning from the milk of the gospel to the solid food of martyrdom.” Patricia M. Davis, “The Weaning of Perpetua: Female Embodiment and Spiritual Growth Metaphor in the Dream of an Early Christian Martyr,” Dreaming 15 (2005), 262.

[20] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 127.

[21] Tertullian, “On Baptism,” 677.

[22] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 127.

[23] There are other opinions. For instance, Sara Parvis conjectures that Perpetua and her husband were perhaps divorced. As for Rex Butler, the absence of the two female martyrs’ husbands reflects the abandonment of the husbands of the Montanist female prophets, Priscilla and Maimilla. Sara Parvis, “Perpetua,” 367; Rex D. Butler, The New Prophecy & “New Visions,”130.

[24] Alvyn Pettersen, “Perpetua—Prisoner of Conscience,” 148.

[25] Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, ed. by William H. Shannon (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995), 70, 73.

[26] Tertullian, “On Baptism,” Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325: Vol. III - Latin Christianity: Its Founder Tertullian, 679.

[27] Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion, 72.

[28] Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises (Herfordshire, England: Gracewing, 1998), 169.

[29] Michael Buckley, “The Contemplation To Attain Love,” Supplement to the Way 24 (1975), 93.

[30] Katherine Dyckman et al., The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2001), 156.

[31] For more a detailed classification, see Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 74.

[32] Katherine Dyckman et al., The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, 183.

[33] Michael Ivens, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, 147.

[34] Ignatius of Loyola, the Spiritual Exercises, no. 233, Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works, ed. by George E. Ganss (New York: Paulist Press, 1991),176.

[35] Wilkie Au, “Ignatian Service: Gratitude and Love in Action,” Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits 40 (2008), 13.

[36] Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises, no. 234.

[37] Ibid., no. 4, 18.

[38] Ibid., no. 230.

[39] Elizabeth A. Castelli, Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making (New York: Columbia University, 2004), 86.

[40] Michael P. Jensen, Martyrdom and Identity: The Self on Trial (New York: T&T Clark International, 2010), 7.         

[41] Michael W. Cooper contends that the image of Jesus in Ignatian spirituality is “Christ on Mission.” Michael W. Cooper, “Ignatian Spirituality: Unitative Action with Christ on Mission,” Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction 2 (1996/9), 26.

[42] Ignatian spirituality is generally classified as representative of the apostolic spirituality.

[43] Augustine of Hippo (354-430) banned people in his diocese from reading Perpetua’ narrative in church because people tended to give it a respect similar to scripture.

[44] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 107-9. Emphases are original.

[45] Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion, 134.

[46] Johann Baptist Metz, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology, tr. by Matthew Ashley (New York: Cross Publishing, 2007), 188.

[47] Michael P. Jensen, Martyrdom and Identity, 6.

[48] Open Doors, “North Korea,” World Watch List 2023, https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/north-korea. Accessed on May 5, 2023.

[49] The Voice of the Martyrs, Extreme Devotion: The Voice of the Martyrs (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2002), 150.

[50] Herbert Musurillo, ed., The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 129. Emphases are original.

[51] In South Korea, there are complicated debates on the crisis of Korean Christianity. Most Christians think that Korean Churches are facing a serious crisis. Although the analysis of the reason for the crisis is various, they agree that the crisis comes from inside the churches not from outside the churches.

[52] Hae-young Choi, “A Comparative Study on the Similarities of Martyrdom in the Ancient Roman Empire and S. Korea in the First half of the 20th Century,” Theology and Mission 50 (2017), 53-54, 81.

[53] The Korean translation of the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas is contained in 닛사의 그레고리 외, 『초기 기독교 여성 지도자들』[The Women Leaders in the Early Christianity], tr. by 김재현, 전경미 (Seoul: KIATS, 2019), 45-75.