On Aventine Hill – in the past a plebian district of Rome – they had lived until the year 49 A.D., meaning the times of Emperor Claudius, who at that time ordered the Jews to be exiled from the city. The reason for this decree was the constant conflicts and riots in the Jewish commune regarding the figure of Jesus Christ, described without much interest by Roman historians. As can be assumed, Prisca and Aquila were supporters of Christianity or more appropriately at that time still Judeo-Christianity, since that is how their sympathy towards St. Paul can be explained, whom they cared for in exile in Corinth. Finding himself in the city, Paul encountered difficulties and dislike of the local commune, as a result of which he had to depart from the city, and the married couple accompanied him on his journey to Ephesus (51 A.D.), preparing the proper setting for his missionary activity. It was in their house that meetings of Christians took place. This continued to be the case when the couple returned to Rome. This is testified to by a letter of St. Paul directed to Romans, to which he adds an explicit greeting: “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles, also greet the church that is in their house” (Ro 16: 3-5). Paul calls them his “fellow workers” and interestingly enough names Prisca first as if she was his main support and not her husband.

Prisca herself seems to be a woman by all accounts exceptional. Her figure is a far stretch from the basic, hagiographic image of an under-age virgin, perversely tortured by her oppressors, whom we encounter at every step of the way upon Roman altars and who are constantly used to stimulate the Catholic imagination. She was one of those energetic and filled with inner strength Christian women, who wandered the then world with the aim to spread the new faith. Both she and her husband Aquila were part of one of the Jewish communes of the city of Rome, which had existed there in the first decades of our era. Christ had just been crucified, his disciples either scattered around the world or all news of them had been lost, while in the synagogues and on the squares and streets of Rome a conflict was growing. Some Jews renounced Christ completely, others called Nazarenes by the former (like Prisca and her husband) saw in him the long-awaited Messiah.

For a Roman, looking at all of this from the side, Judaism was an eccentric faith, difficult to understand. If it was not enough that it “barbarically” caused physical wounds by circumcision, it also forbade the consumption of pork and mixed marriages. On the other hand, Jews exhibiting devotion to family and commune and upholding their religious customs, sparked not only interest but also often admiration. And what of Judeo-Christians? On one hand in remaining faithful to Mosaic Law, while on the other to Christ, they were probably at that time seen as one of the numerous sects present in the Jewish faith, although one that carried an additional destabilizing element – one that was anti-state and antisocial. Apart from that it was a branch that waited for the second coming of Christ and the end of the world, thus renouncing the present, which was hard to accept for pragmatic Romans. This was the situation of the Judeo-Christian commune after the death of Christ, when a group of the faithful met in the house of Prisca and Aquila.

It must be added, that Paul himself, the latter saint, the Apostle of the Nations, was not very popular among Roman communes. He probably counted on the aid of Prisca and Aquila in elevating his image among the resident Jews. However, they were not with him at the moment of his repeated, this time final imprisonment in a Roman arrest. Paul bemoans his loneliness: “….no one has stood by me, but all have left me”. Most likely Prisca and Aquila did likewise – perhaps they had died, perhaps they left or simply they no longer believed in him. There is no more information about these figures who were important for Paul. Paul himself, as we know, was executed outside the walls of Rome.

Still today in the Roman Catholic Church, which has always placed family values on a pedestal, we do not find many examples of marriages joined by a strong conviction that they have a religious mission. It seems that Prisca and Aquila were just such a couple. Why then do we hear so little of them? Perhaps, the problem was St. Paul himself, who considered marriage to be an imperfect state, a lesser – as he claimed – evil, destined for those, who were unable to live in abstinence. He was the one who preached that if one must have a wife, he should live as if he had none. The fate of St. Prisca devoted to St. Paul apparently did not arouse the appropriate emotions among the Roman populace and Church decision makers, since as early as the III century, from a pragmatic and quick-witted woman, she became the fictitious Prisca – an under-age virgin. A legend which came to be, says that she was the victim of persecutions during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Baptized by St. Peter, she was then given to the lions to devour during the games. However, since the animals had refused to touch her and a lion simply licked her feet, Prisca was ultimately beheaded. Her body was laid to rest in the catacombs, named after her (Catacombs of Priscilla). In this way St. Prisca would have been the first Roman martyr, who died for the faith even before saints Peter and Paul. Still another legend speaks of a martyr from the III century beheaded during persecutions in times of the reign of Emperor Claudius Gothicus.

Relics of one of those Priscas are found in the crypt of the Church of Santa Prisca on Aventine Hill – the only place in Rome in which this significant woman is venerated, the one who with true determination spread the teachings of Christ and aided St. Paul.

Information regarding Prisca: Acts of the Apostles and Letters of St. Paul (Acts 18, 1-3, Acts 18, 18-21, Acts 18,26, Ro 16, 3-5,1, Cor 16,19,2, Tim 4,19).