What is often preached about women in the church built by Christ is limited to what they can’t do – such as preach and teach publicly to the usurpation of the male role (1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:11-12). What often goes unnoticed is the role women played in the progress and furtherance of the gospel. Women financed Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1-3) and were an excellent aid to the gospel (Rom. 16:1-15). While they were prohibited from public preaching and teaching, it certainly wasn’t because they were ignorant or less informed than their male counterparts. This was simply God’s design as we see from Paul’s reference to the creation order in 1 Timothy 2.

In the early church, we see a continuation of the thought that women should have been active in the tradition roles of wives and mothers. Just as Paul often admonished in his letters, they were also encouraged to love their husbands and children and to keep their homes. This is perhaps one of the greatest testimonies to a fallen society that women have a God-ordained function that honors Him and the church. Nevertheless, as time went on, some women chose to remain celibates such as virgins and widows. Those who chose celibacy lived so privately in their homes, but by the third century there were communities of virgins living together – almost like monasteries, but not.

There are many faithful, hardworking women that we know nothing about in Christian history. Some are mentioned – such as Blandina at Lyons and Perpetua at Carthage. Both of these women were martyred for their faith in Christ. Blandina was a slave whose master was also a Christian. Both were thrown into prison during Marcus Aurelius’ persecution of Christians. Blandina had a frail body, but she was so faithful under torture that when those who tortured her became exhausted, they did not know what more they could do to her. She is recorded to have replied to every question asked of her under torture, “I am a Christian, and we commit no wrongdoing.” She was eventually bound to a stake in the amphitheater and made to suffer as wild beasts were loosened to devour her. She “was scourged, placed on a red-hot grate, enclosed in a net and thrown before a wild steer who tossed her into the air with his horns, and at last killed with a dagger.”

Perpetua was a noblewoman who was a young mother when she was martyred. As she and others entered the arena for their martyrdom, Perpetua is recorded to have begun singing psalms. She was stripped naked and led to the arena along with a slave-girl named Felicity, who was also a Christian. When their naked bodies were exposed to the crowd, the crowd saw that Perpetua was young (22 years old) by her nakedness. They also noticed that milk dripped from Felicity’s breasts due to a recent childbirth. The onlookers demanded that they be clothed – perhaps to ease their consciences. When they were returned clothed, they were left in the arena with a wild heifer that mauled them. Their battered bodies were put on a platform where they were executed.

Why talk about such horrible deaths when speaking about women in the early church? Sometimes the faith of a good, Christian women is more inspiring than anything a man has done. You probably clicked to read this article thinking that I’d write about how women did not preach or teach publicly in early church history as further proof to corroborate Scripture. Perhaps our jaded and one-sided view of women in the church needs to be abolished. Right, women didn’t teach or preach publicly because that was God’s design, but if all we ever do is view women by what they can’t do, we’re robbing our sisters of the joys of living with such a dynamic faith such as these. I am not one for advocating what women should do contrary to God’s Word, but I think the point has been battered to death just as those faithful martyrs. Let’s resolve to encourage our sisters to strive to do great things for Christ and His bride.

–http://start2finish.org/women-in-the-early-church/