Saint Prisca
Virgin and Martyr
(† 275)

After many torments, she was a noble Roman lady and finished her triumph by the sword about the year 275. Her relics are preserved in the ancient church, which bears her name in Rome and gives her title to a cardinal. She is mentioned in the sacramentary of Saint Gregory and almost all western Martyrologies. The acts of her martyrdom deserve no regard: Saint Paul, in the last chapter of his epistle to the Romans, salutes Aquila, a person of Pontus, of Jewish extraction, and Priscilla, whom he and all churches thanked because they had exposed themselves for his sake. He mentions the church which assembled in their house, which he attributes to no other among the twenty–five Christians whom he saluted and were then at Rome. This agrees with the immemorial tradition in Rome that Saint Peter consecrated an altar and was baptized there in an urn of stone, which is now kept in the church of Saint Prisca. Aquila and Priscilla are still honored in this church as titular patrons of our saint, and a considerable part of their relics lies under the altar. Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers and lived at Corinth when they were banished from Rome under Claudius: she who is called Priscilla in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans, and first to the Corinthians, is named Prisca in the second to Timothy.

[Butler, Alban. The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. Compiled from Original Monuments and Authentic Records. Dublin: James Duffy, 1866. Edited by Michael Murphy. Used with permission.]