Texts in Conversation
A vision by Perpetua, a young mother martyred in Carthage, resembles Luke's gospel in describing a tormented soul, thirsty, with water unreachable across an impassable gap. Perpetua’s prayers lower the pool’s rim so her dead brother can drink.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Luke 16:24
New Testament
23 And in Hades, as he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. 24 So he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this fire.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. 26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’
Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas 3:3
Passion of Perpetua
Early Christian
3 "After a few days, while we were all praying, suddenly in the middle of our prayer a name came to me, and I spoke the name Dinocrates; and I was amazed that that name had never come into my mind until then, and I was grieved as I remembered his misfortune. I felt myself immediately to be worthy and called to pray on his behalf. And for him I began earnestly to plead, and to cry out with groaning to the Lord. Without delay, that very night, this was shown to me in a vision. I saw Dinocrates coming out from a dark place, where there were also several others, and he was parched and very thirsty, with a dirty face and pale complexion, and the wound on his face that he had when he died. This Dinocrates had been my brother by blood, seven years of age, who died miserably of disease — his face so eaten away by cancer that his death caused horror in all who saw him. For him I had made my prayer, and between him and me there was a great distance, so that neither of us could approach the other. Moreover, in the same place where Dinocrates was, there was a pool full of water, but its rim was higher than the boy could reach; and Dinocrates stretched himself up as if to drink. I was grieved that, although the pool held water, the rim was too high for him to drink from. And I was distressed, and knew that my brother was in suffering. But I trusted that my prayer would bring help to his suffering; and I prayed for him every day until we were transferred to the military prison, for we were to fight in the games held there. It was then the birthday of Geta Caesar, and I prayed for my brother day and night, groaning and weeping that he might be granted to me."
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Notes and References
"… In the portion of the text that is allegedly her diary (Passion of Perpetua 7–8), Perpetua indicates that one day while in prayer, for no obvious reason and to her own surprise, she said out loud, “Dinocrates.” That was the name of her brother who had died of skin cancer on his face at the tender age of seven. Perpetua realizes she is to pray for him. She does so and sees him in a vision. It is not a happy sight. She is separated from him by an impassable great abyss (as in the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16). Across from her, Dinocrates is in a foul place, coming out of a dark hole. Others with him are all “very hot and thirsty, pale and dirty.” On his face is still a gaping lesion from the cancer. Worst of all, he stands by a pool filled with water, but its rim is too high for him to reach. He is miserably thirsty. … In an interesting way Perpetua’s vision stands in stark contrast with the biblical account of Lazarus in Luke 16 (with which she may have been familiar), where the torment experienced by the damned “Rich Man” cannot be ameliorated, not even by the great patriarch Abraham himself. By contrast, Dinocrates is a hopelessly miserable soul granted relief and ending up with a happy existence, going off to play like the deceased child he is. …"
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