Saint of the Day: Sts Prisca and Aquilla

Companions of Saint Paul (First Century)

Their story

+ The Acts of the Apostles tells us that when Paul left Athens for Corinth, he met Prisca (or Priscilla) and her husband, Aquila, who had recently fled Rome because the Emperor Claudius had ordered the Jews to leave the city.

+ Saint Paul stayed with them in Corinth, working with them as a tentmaker (Acts 18:1-3). The couple later traveled with Paul to Ephesus, where Prisca and Aquila instructed Apollos in the faith (Acts 18:18-19, 24-26).

+ It is clear that Paul held the couple in high regard and it seems they eventually returned to Rome, because in his letter to that city, Paul greets the members of the Church who met in their home (cf. Romans 16:3-5).

+ Although nothing more is known of their lives, it seems that at some point they returned to Ephesus and the Roman Martyrology states that they died in Asia Minor, although a later legend said they were martyred in Rome.

For prayer and reflection

“Together with the gratitude of the early Church, of which St Paul speaks, we must also add our own, since thanks to the faith and apostolic commitment of the lay faithful, of families, of spouses like Priscilla and Aquila, Christianity has reached our generation.”—Pope Benedict XVI

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember Blessed Adolf IV of Holstein. The count of Schauenburg and a crusader, he renounced his privileges and titles to fulfill and oath he took during the Battle of Bornhöved and became a Franciscan friar in 1238. Ordained a priest in 1244, he helped to establish friaries in Hamburg and Kiel, where he died in 1261. Although he was never formally beatified, his memory is held dear in certain parts of Germany.

Prayer

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that the example of your Saints may spur us on to a better life, so that we, who celebrate the memory of blessed Prisca and Aquila, may also imitate without ceasing their deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For Several Saints)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.