PRISCA, santa. - In Rome in the 7th century a P. martyr was commemorated on Jan. 18, also remembered by the Gregorian Sacramentary. The Itineraries of the same century remember her as buried in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria nuova. In some codices of the Hieronymian Martyrology, however, on the same date a Priscilla is commemorated, buried on the same Via Salaria, who is probably the eponym of that cemetery.

The Passio, probably of the 8th century, is nothing but a reworking of that of Tatiana, and like it legendary. In Rome there already existed in the 5th century a «titulus Priscae» remembered 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 of whom St. Paul speaks (Rom. 16, 3; I Cor. 16, 19) and the Acts of the Apostles (18, 2; 18). The titulus was therefore placed in relation with St. Peter himself. Recent excavations showed that it was built over a mithraeum.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: Lib. Pont., I, p. 501, 507; Acta SS. Januaris, II, Paris 1863, pp. 547-52; J. P. Kirsch, Die römischen Titelkirchen im Altertum, Paderborn 1918, pp. 101-103, 162 ff.; F. Lanzoni, I titoli prebiteriali di Roma antica..., in Riv. di arch. crist., 2 (1925), pp. 247-50; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 47; Martyr. Romanum, p. 26; M. Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dal sec. IV al XIX (ed. C. Cecchelli), Rome 1942, pp. 705-9, 1920; A. Ferrua, Il mitreo sotto la chiesa di S. P., in Bollettino della commiss. archeol.-comunale, 68 (1940), p. 59 ff.; R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, II, ibid. 1942, pp. 77, 278.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec10_prisca_santa, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Prisca, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {36}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/prisca-santa} }

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Prisca, Saint

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