Chapter 12 [X.]—Dinocrates, Brother of the Martyr St. Perpetua, is Said to Have Been Delivered from the State of Condemnation by the Prayers of the Saint.

Concerning Dinocrates, however, the brother of St. Perpetua, there is no record in the canonical Scripture; nor does the saint herself, or whoever it was that wrote the account, say that the boy, who had died at the age of seven years, died without baptism; in his behalf she is believed to have had, when her martyrdom was imminent, her prayers effectually heard that he should be removed from the penalties of the lost to rest. Now, boys at that time of life are able both to lie, and, saying the truth, both to confess and deny. Therefore, when they are baptized they say the Creed, and answer in their behalf to such questions as are proposed to them in examination. Who can tell, then, whether that boy, after baptism, in a time of persecution was estranged from Christ to idolatry by an impious father, and on that account incurred mortal condemnation, from which he was only delivered for Christ’s sake, given to the prayers of his sister when she was at the point of death?

CAPUT X.

12. De fratre autem sanctae Perpetuae Dinocrate, nec scriptura ipsa canonica est, nec illa sic scripsit, vel quicumque illud scripsit, ut illum puerum qui septennis mortuus fuerat, sine Baptismo diceret fuisse defunctum: pro quo illa imminente martyrio creditur exaudita, ut a poenis transferretur ad requiem. Nam illius aetatis pueri, et mentiri, et verum loqui, et confiteri, et negare jam possunt. Et ideo cum baptizantur, jam et symbolum reddunt, et ipsi pro se ad interrogata respondent. Quis igitur scit utrum puer ille post Baptismum, persecutionis tempore a patre impio per idololatriam fuerit alienatus a Christo, propter quod in damnationem mortis ierit, nec inde nisi pro Christo moriturae sororis precibus donatus exierit?