The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313
Saturus
d. 7 March 203 · Catechist · Voluntary confessor · Martyr of Carthage · Carthage
The Ante-Nicene Church
Who Saturus was
The catechist who had instructed Perpetua’s group and who, though not arrested with them, gave himself up voluntarily to share their fate — “for he himself had built us up,” Perpetua writes, “and he had not been present at our arrest.” The Passion preserves his own vision, in his own hand: he and Perpetua carried after death to a garden of light, greeted by martyrs and angels. In the arena a leopard drenched him in one bite, and the crowd jeered the “second baptism.” With his written vision he is, beside Perpetua, one of only two martyrs of the early church whose first-person testimony survives.
Also listed in martyrs.
Common questions
When did Saturus die?
Saturus is dated d. 7 March 203 in the archive, which places Saturus in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313).
What did Saturus write?
Saturus has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: The Vision of Saturus (Passion of Perpetua 11–13).
Which early sources mention Saturus?
Saturus is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Saturus (his own vision, in the Passion), Augustine of Hippo and The Hieronymian compilers. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Saturus from?
The archive associates Saturus with Carthage.
Writings (1)
The Vision of Saturus (Passion of Perpetua 11–13)
'This vision he himself wrote out' — the catechist's first-person account of the garden and the four angelsWe had suffered, and we passed out of the flesh, and began to be carried towards the east by four angels whose hand touched us not.Read the interlinear source text →
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Passion of Perpetua and Felicity 11
c. AD 203‘We had suffered,’ says Saturus, ‘and had passed out of the flesh, and we began to be carried toward the east by four angels whose hands touched us not.’Saturus (his own vision, in the Passion) · 11 · source text
Sermon 280 (his vision recalled in the preaching)
c. AD 410Martyrologium Hieronymianum (with Perpetua's company, 7 March)
c. AD 450Connected in the archive
People
- Vibia Perpetua
- Revocatus
- Felicity (Felicitas)
- Saturninus of Carthage
- Pudens the Warder
- Hilarianus, procurator of Africa
- Optatus of Carthage
Events in this lifetime
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144
- AD 156 · The New Prophecy erupts, AD 156
- AD 177 · Persecution at Lyon and Vienne, AD 177
- AD 180 · The Scillitan martyrs, AD 180
- AD 190 · The Quartodeciman controversy, AD 190
- AD 202 · Perpetua and Felicity martyred, AD 202
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Saturus.