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Righteous1st century

Righteous Priscilla

1st century

Also known as Prisca · Priscilla wife of Aquila

A fellow-worker of the Apostle Paul who, with her husband Aquila, instructed Apollos more perfectly in the way of God and hosted the church in their home.

July 14New Calendar
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July 27Old Calendar
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Commemorated as

The Holy and Righteous Priscilla, Fellow-Worker of the Apostle Paul

Life

Priscilla, whose formal name appears in the New Testament as Prisca, was a first-century Jewish Christian woman and, together with her husband Aquila, a close fellow-worker of the Apostle Paul. The couple are named six times across four New Testament books (Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Timothy), an unusually prominent presence for lay collaborators in the apostolic mission.

Expelled from Rome along with the city's Jewish population by an edict of the Emperor Claudius, Priscilla and Aquila settled in Corinth, where they met Paul and shared his trade of tentmaking. They received his teaching, were baptized, and became his devoted disciples, later accompanying him to Ephesus. There they instructed the eloquent Alexandrian preacher Apollos, who knew only the baptism of John, explaining to him 'the way of God more accurately' (Acts 18:26).

Their home served as a gathering place for the church (1 Corinthians 16:19), and Paul commends them in his Epistle to the Romans as fellow workers who 'risked their necks' for his life. Orthodox tradition holds that both were martyred by pagans; they are venerated together as a model of married Christian partnership in the apostolic labor.

Timeline5 momentsReadHide
  1. c. AD 49Expelled from RomeAn edict of the Emperor Claudius expels the Jews from Rome, an event recorded by the Roman historian Suetonius. Priscilla and her husband Aquila, a native of Pontus, leave the city and settle in Corinth.
  2. c. AD 50-52Meeting Paul in CorinthPaul, arriving from Athens, lodges with the couple in Corinth and works alongside them as a tentmaker for about eighteen months. Both Priscilla and Aquila receive baptism from Paul and become his disciples.
  3. c. AD 52Ministry at EphesusThe couple accompany Paul to Ephesus. Hearing Apollos preaching in the synagogue, they take him aside and explain to him the way of God more accurately (Acts 18:26). Their house becomes a meeting place of the church (1 Corinthians 16:19).
  4. after AD 54Return to RomeFollowing the death of Claudius, Priscilla and Aquila return to Rome. Paul greets them in his Epistle to the Romans as fellow workers who risked their necks for his life (Romans 16:3-4).
  5. 1st centuryMartyrdomAccording to church tradition, both Priscilla and Aquila were ultimately killed by pagans; Orthodox liturgical tradition records that Priscilla suffered beheading.

Contributions & Legacy

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Scriptural Witness

Priscilla and Aquila appear six times in the New Testament, distributed across the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle to the Romans, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the Second Epistle to Timothy. Aquila is identified as a Jew from Pontus, and the couple were resident in Rome until the expulsion under Claudius.

In Corinth the couple shared Paul's trade of tentmaking, and he lodged with them for roughly eighteen months. In Ephesus they took the learned Alexandrian evangelist Apollos, who 'knew only the baptism of John the Forerunner,' and instructed him more fully in the faith. Paul's warm commendation in Romans 16:3-4 names them 'my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks.'

Veneration and Feast Days

In the Greek and Antiochian Orthodox calendars the couple are commemorated together on February 13. July 14 is the commemoration of the Apostle Aquila of the Seventy, on which Priscilla is honored by association. The Apostolic Constitutions report that Paul ordained Aquila a bishop in Asia, where he preached across Asia, Achaia, and Heraklia, converting pagans and establishing presbyters.

The Mystagogy Resource Center presents the couple as 'the protectors of loving spouses,' venerating them as a model of married Christian apostolic life. The February 13 feast, placed on the eve of the civil feast of Valentine on February 14, has been read as a liturgical contrast between the Christian apostolic couple and secular romantic culture. Tradition records that the couple had no biological children; the tone of their veneration stresses hospitality, missionary collaboration, and the witness of spousal partnership.

Relics & Shrines

The Basilica of Santa Prisca on the Aventine Hill in Rome is a titular church dedicated to Saint Prisca, whom tradition identifies with Priscilla the wife of Aquila. It is attested as the Titulus Priscae at a Roman synod in 499, evidence of ancient veneration of the saint. The church was built in the fourth or fifth century over an earlier Mithraeum erected around AD 95, and its altar crypt is said to contain relics of the saint together with a baptismal font traditionally associated with the Apostle Peter.

Dutch archaeological excavations between 1952 and 1959 uncovered the underlying Mithraeum with extensive frescoes, mosaics, and stucco sculpture. The church was restored after the Norman Sack of Rome in 1084 and received its present facade in a restoration begun by Carlo Lombardi in 1660 and completed in 1728. This Roman tradition, connecting Prisca to the Aventine Hill and to the earliest stratum of Roman Christianity, supports the account that both she and Aquila were ultimately martyred in Rome.

Family1 relativeShowHide
Her husband and inseparable co-worker, named with her throughout the New Testament.
Apostle Aquilaof the Seventy
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Sources: Acts; Epistles of Paul; Synaxarion (commemorated with Aquila)