3rd century
Feast: March 7
A young slave woman who gave birth in prison and was martyred alongside St. Perpetua.
Felicity (died 203) was a pregnant slave girl who was imprisoned with St. Perpetua and other catechumens in Carthage during the persecution under Emperor Septimius Severus. She gave birth to a daughter while in prison, just days before being thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheater. Her story, preserved in the famous Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, shows extraordinary courage in facing death for Christ. Her martyrdom alongside Perpetua became one of the most celebrated in early Christian literature.