Saints and Slavery

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MadameV

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Hello,
I honestly don’t know if this is a good place for this question, so I hope I do not cause any trouble for putting it here. It’s my most educated guess.

I know the story of St. Perpetua, a twenty two year old Noble Roman woman and young mother who was martyred along with her slave, St. Felicity, who had recently given birth. St. Perpetua gave one of, if not the first account by a Christian woman.

What just started to bother me is that St. Felicity was her slave. Slavery is a grave moral evil, so why could a saint have had a slave?

Thanks for you for all answers!
 
I’m not very familiar with the story, but having just read it on catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=48
I don’t see anything that says Felicity was specifically Perpetua’s slave. It only says that they were being catechized together.

But, anyway, even if Perpetua did own slaves, the way we understand slavery now is different from the slavery in the Roman Empire. Slavery has not always been morally abhorrent, as you will find many instances of slavery in the bible.
 
MadameV said:
What just started to bother me is that St. Felicity was her slave. Slavery is a grave moral evil, so why could a saint have had a slave?
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Perhaps studying who and what slaves were in the first centuries would help you. It is always best to try not to look with our current societal lens back many millennia into a different time and place.

At that time, the institution was a bedrock of the social and commercial life of Rome. Roman law governed slavery.

If St Perpetua had “freed” St Felicity where would she have gone? What would have become of her? With no Roman citizenship, she would have been on her own with little resource.

I think it’s a big leap from saying “Felicity was a slave in Perpetua’s household” to “Perpetua was sinful for maintaining slaves”.

newadvent.org/cathen/14036a.htm

newadvent.org/cathen/14039a.htm
 
Here is a rough history of slavery.

Slavery started as indentured slaves. We read about how Jacob fell in love with Sarah and willingly (indentured) became a slave to Sarah’s father for seven years. This allowed the father to teach Jacob all he knew and to check out to make sure Jacob was a man of integrity & morals (which father biffed & tricked Jacob). So, we can see slavery was he prelude to something like a mortgage (with wife & sheep). People who wanted things greater than they could afford willingly became slaves.

Well, this evolved to how to make it up when someone did something wrong like steeling. People cried that those who committed crimes greater than they could pay be forced into working for them. The Jewish made boundaries with this. Like resting on the seventh day, each seven years a slave was to be freed: Jubilation years.

People got cozy to this and abused it. They would label whole societies as sinners and capture them. They forgot they Jubilation promise of their ancestors. They forgot the mercy of reforming and they used slaves to further their own interests. Because they labeled a whole race as sinners, this diminished the self esteem of this culture … And how cultures interacted with the race known as sinners. This is the great moral evil.

St. Felicity was a great saint who loved Perpetua as a big sister. Her desire to give birth before the execution demonstrated the reformation Perpetua invested into Felicity. Lastly, Perpetua shows us with her looking out for others that they are equals and she is serving someone below her (like when Jesus washes feet).
 
History repeating.

The story of Joseph and the coat of many colors shows how little Joseph was sold into slavery and became the Pharo’s advisor. When Joseph took mercy and pitty on his brothers (who sold him Into slavery) he was able to feed the poor (His family). Because God gave Joseph dreams about prosperity and famine Egypt had food for many. Next, news spread how Egypt had food. They willingly sold their services and labor for the much needed food to the residents of Egypt. At first, they were honored and respected. Century after century (four centuries) the slavery became more and more unjust. The more unjust it became, the more the slaves called for freedom. Then came Moses to free them.
 
Currently, the world is living off slave labor in China, India, and other “third world countries”. Although we do not have these people directly serve us, they are living off wages hey earn while working like animals in sweat factories that are unsanitary and dangerous to the workers. These workers are crying out for relief, I’d bet God hears them. Each time we buy a product that costs low and is made in these slave like environments, we are participating in slavery (roundabout way). When was the last time you bought something made in France, Italy, Germany, Australia, England, or Norway? Sure, there is a cry to buy “made in the USA” … But if we are to goto a moral global economy we need to spread out the poor laborers and manufacturing globally too.

Now, as I stated, China is near being a country of slaves. However, China does have the most free market enterprise in the world. Sure, they are suffocating in their own pollution and suffer from the one child policy … But the aristocrats of China could easily change the game and make the countries that buy from them their slaves.

Since it took 400 years for the freedom from Egypt, I’d imagine this too would be. Slower transition, but highly probable since history does repeat itself.
 
Perhaps this also might help…

In my family we have discovered that several of our immigrant ancestors came as indenture servants…and they went on to do great things with their lives. They are considered historical and important figures during the birth of our country.

They were owned by the people they served for many years. As a Grand Daughter I do not hold hate or am I disgusted or any other term one might use to describe their owners. Our ancestors had to do what they did.
 
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