ST PRISCA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 18 JANUARY

  

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 18th of January 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST PRISCA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

She was a noble Roman lady, and after many torments finished her triumph by the sword, about the year 275. 

Her relics are preserved in the ancient church which bears her name in Rome, and gives title to a cardinal. 

SHE IS MENTIONED IN ALMOST ALL WESTERN MARTYROLOGIES

She is mentioned in the sacramentary of St Gregory, and in almost all western Martyrologies. 

The acts of her martyrdom deserve no regard: St. Paul, in the last chapter of his epistle to the Romans, salutes Aquila, a person of Pontus, of Jewish extraction, and Priscilla, whom he and all churches thanked, because they had exposed themselves for his sake. 

He mentions the church which assembled in their house, which he attributes to no other among the twenty-five Christians whom he saluted, and were then at Rome. 

This agrees with the immemorial tradition at Rome, that St Peter consecrated an altar, and baptised there in an urn of stone, which is now kept in the church of St Prisca. 

AQUILA AND PRISCILLA

Aquila and Priscilla are still honoured in this church, as titular patrons with our saint, and a considerable part of their relics lies under the altar. 

Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers, and lived at Corinth, when they were banished from Rome under Claudius: she who is called Priscilla in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans, and first to the Corinthians, is named Prisca in the second to Timothy. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)