The Diary She Kept in the Dark

In the year 203 AD, a young noblewoman named Vibia Perpetua sat in a Carthaginian prison, nursing her infant son through iron bars. She was twenty-two years old, well-educated, and facing execution for refusing to renounce her faith. Her father begged her to recant. The Roman procurator offered clemency. She had every earthly reason to surrender. Instead, she kept a diary.…