PRISCA, Saint. — At Rome in the 7th century a martyr named P. was commemorated on January 18, also recorded in the Gregorian Sacramentary. The same-century itineraries place her burial in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria nova. In some manuscripts of the Gregorian Martyrology, however, on the same date a Priscilla buried on the same Via Salaria is commemorated, who was probably the eponym of that cemetery.
The Passio, probably from the 8th century, is nothing but a reworking of that of Tatiana, and like it legendary. At Rome there already existed in the 5th century a “titulus Priscae,” mentioned in an inscription and in the Synod of 499; in the 6th century it is called, as in similar cases, “sanctae Priscae”; in the 8th century the foundress was identified with P., the wife of Aquila spoken of by St. Paul (Rom. 16:3; 1 Cor. 16:19) and the Acts of the Apostles (18:2, 18). The title was therefore connected with St. Peter himself. Recent excavations showed that it was built over a mithraeum.