(Or Prisca.)
Jewish tentmakers, who left Rome (Aquila was a native of Pontus) in the Jewish persecution under Claudius, 49 or 50, and settled in Corinth, where they entertained St. Paul, as being of their trade, on his first visit to the town (Acts 18:1 ff.). The time of their conversion to the Faith is not known. They accompanied St. Paul to Ephesus (Acts 18:18-19), instructed the Alexandrian Apollo, entertained the Apostle Paul at Ephesus for three years, during his third missionary journey, kept a Christian church in their house (1 Corinthians 16:19), left Ephesus for Rome, probably after the riot stirred up by the silversmith Demetrius (Acts 19:24-40), kept in Rome also a church in their house (Romans 16:3-5), but soon left that city, probably on account of the persecution of Nero, and settled again at Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:19). The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on 8 July. It is not known why Scripture several times names Priscilla before Aquila; the different opinions are given by Cornely, (Rom., 772). A number of modern difficulties based on the frequent change of residence of Aquila and Priscilla are treated by Cornely, (Romans 16:3-5).
HAGEN, Lexicon Biblicum (Paris, 1905); LE CAMUS in VIG., Dict. de la Bible (Paris, 1895); KLOSS and KAULEN in Kirchenlex. (Freiburg, 1882).
APA citation. (1907). Aquila and Priscilla. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01661b.htm
MLA citation. "Aquila and Priscilla." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01661b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, Lufkin, Texas. Dedicated to an increase in vocations to the religious life.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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