January 18 + Saint Prisca

There are three Saint Priscilla’s who lived in the first few centuries of the Church – all of whom were martyrs – and two of them share the same feast day of January 18. It is the virgin martyr Prisca (a variation of the name Priscilla) that the Church primarily celebrates today.

Prisca was born of a noble Christian family in Rome during the reign of Claudius II. She was arrested during the persecutions when she was a young teenager and brought before the Emperor for questioning. Despite her youth, Prisca courageously proclaimed and upheld her Catholic Faith, even though she knew that by doing so was ultimately the pronouncement of her own death sentence.

She suffered terrible tortures, one of which was being taken to the arena to be devoured by wild beasts. Rather than devour her though, the lions were said to have licked her feet. Since the beasts were unsuccessful, she was taken outside the city walls and beheaded. When she was martyred, a great eagle appeared above her and protected her body until the Christians were able to retrieve it.

Prisca was buried in the Catacomb of Saint Priscilla - the catacomb named after an earlier Priscilla, who shares the same feast day of January 18 with the young virgin martyr.

Priscilla was the wife of Manius Acilius Glabrio and the mother of the Roman Senator Saint Pudens. Priscilla befriended Saint Peter and allowed him and other early Christians to use her home on the Via Salaria as the headquarters for Peter’s missionary endeavors in Rome. She was martyred during the reign of Emperor Domitian and the catacombs which stretched beneath her home were named after her.

The third Saint Priscilla was a disciple of Saint Paul and the wife of the Jewish tentmaker, Aquila.