s. (Opusc. 17
& 18; His works are printed in nineteen volumes folio.)
10. Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma: quam mercedem addipies? Non aliam,
nisi te Domine.
11. Psalm cxxxi. 14.
12. Conf. l. 10, c. 28.
13. There is another commentary on the same book which sometimes bears
his name, and begins: Sonet vox tua in auribus meis: which was not
the work of this saint, but of Hayme{}, bishop of Halberstadt. See
Echard, t. 1, p. 323. Touron, p. 714. Le Long. Bibl. Sacra. n. 766.
14. Tibi debo et quod non feci. St. Au{}.
15. St. Bonav. l. de Mystica Theol. a. ult.

SS. PERPETUA, AND FELICITAS, MM.

WITH THEIR COMPANIONS.

From their most valuable genuine acts, quoted by Tertullian, l. de
anima, c. 55, and by St. Austin, serm. {}, 283, 294. The first part of
these acts, which reaches to the eve of her martyrdom, was written by
St. Perpetua. The vision of St. Saturus was added by him. The rest was
subjoined by an eye-witness of their death. See Tillemont, t. 3, p. 139.
Ceillier, t. 2, p. 213. These acts have been often republished; but are
extant, most ample and correct, in Ruinart. They were publicly read in
the churches of Africa, as appears from St. Austin, Serm. 180. See them
vindicated from the suspicion of Montanism, by O{}, Vindicae Act. SS.
Perpetuae et Felicitatis.

A. D 203.

A VIOLENT persecution being set on foot by the emperor Severus, in 202,
reached Africa the following year; when, by order of Minutius
Timinianus, {534} (or Firminianus,) five catechumens were apprehended at
Carthage for the faith: namely, Rovocatus, and his fellow-slave
Felicitas, Saturninus, and Secundulus, and Vibia Perpetua. Felicitas was
seven months gone with child; and Perpetua had an infant at her breast,
was of a good family, twenty-two years of age, and married to a person
of quality in the city. She had a father, a mother, and two brothers;
the third, Dinocrates, died about seven years old. These five martyrs
were joined by Saturus, probably brother to Saturninus, and who seems to
have been their instructor: he underwent a voluntary imprisonment,
because he would not abandon them. The father of St. Perpetua, who was a
pagan, and advanced in years, loved her more than all his other
children. Her mother was probably a Christian, as was one of her
brothers, the other a catechumen. The martyrs were for some days before
their commitment kept under a strong guard in a private house: and the
account Perpetua gives of the