AQUILA AND PRISCILLA (PRISCA). - Jewish-Christian spouses, "co-workers" of St. Paul (Rom. 16:3). Having come from Rome following the decree of Claudius (year 49-50) that expelled the Jews (Acts 18:2 ff.; Suetonius, Claudius, 25), they met, in 51 A.D., at Corinth for the first time with the Apostle. A. was a native of Pontus, where colonies of Hebrews abounded. P. was perhaps born in Rome, where that name was widespread. P. is usually named before A., perhaps because she was more distinguished or more active in works of charity.
They had probably become Christians before leaving Rome.
They were, like Paul, tentmakers; at Corinth they carried on this trade with Christian workers under their direction. Paul stayed with them, practicing the craft by which he procured food without being a burden to anyone (Acts 18:1-3), but he left their house to stay with Justus, when, wishing to give the deserved response to the criminality of the Jews, he abandoned them and turned to the Gentiles. From the Acts and the letters of St. Paul stands out the zeal of A. and P. for the Gospel. When Paul went to Ephesus, they followed him. After the Apostle departed for Jerusalem, they won the preacher Apollos to Christianity (Acts 18:19, 26).
They appear again at Rome (Rom. 16:3), then at Ephesus (II Tim. 4:19). They moved, perhaps for reasons of commerce, from one center to another, leading with them their own workers already Christian, or gathering others whom they converted to the faith, since Paul names, both at Rome and at Ephesus, "the church of their house" (I Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:4). At the risk of their lives they freed St. Paul from death, probably at Ephesus (Rom. 16:4; Acts 19:23 ff.).
In the letters of St. Paul we find affectionate remembrance and praise of them (Rom.
(propr. Enc. Catt.)
16:3-5; II Tim. 4:19; I Cor. 16:19).
The Roman Martyrology commemorates A. as bishop of Heraclea (July 8); the Byzantine rite commemorates him on July 14. The attribution of the composition of the epistle to the Hebrews to A. and P. (A. Harnack, in Zeitschr. f. neutest. Wiss., 1 (1900), pp. 16-41: the principal part would belong to Priscilla) has no foundation. Their memory remained glorious for a long time among Christians. The ancient "titulus Priscae" on the Aventine and the cemetery of P. on the via Salaria perhaps refer to the wife of A. (v. PRISCA, saint). The Acts of A. (ed. Ebersolt, Paris 1902) are late (7th century).
Francesco Sole