Plant/Women Writers, 50. Perpetua

(AD 181–203.) In nearly every case, stories of Christian martyrs are fictional. Some are wholly fictional, and some have been so greatly embellished by later writers that they can no longer be taken as historical. The martyrdom of Perpetua, however, is generally taken to be an exception to this rule. Not only is the account of the martyrdom accepted as historical, but many readers believe that part of the story, a first-hand account of the events leading up to her death, were written by Perpetua herself.