A married couple from the dawn of Christianity is more relevant than ever.<\/p>\n
Sts. Priscilla and Aquila embodied three realities the Church cares about deeply: They were a married couple who lived their vocation as a (literal) domestic church; they were lay evangelists; and they were part of a Jewish community that suffered under persecution.<\/p>\n
The story of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her family mirrors theirs in many ways \u2014 and so should ours.<\/p>\n
The way the New Testament mentions Priscilla and Aquila <\/strong>says a lot.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just tha<\/em>t the two are mentioned six times in four different books of the New Testament \u2014 but it\u2019s how<\/em> they are mentioned by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles and by St. Paul in his letters that matters.<\/p>\n They are neither \u201cThe businessman Aquila and his wife,\u201d nor \u201cPriscilla the church lady and her husband;\u201d nor are they defined by their children. They are always mentioned together, as a married couple, even when it comes to their livelihood, tentmakers.<\/p>\n They made a huge impression on their fellow tentmaker, St. Paul, who sends special greetings both to <\/em>them and de <\/em>them in his letters. His words to Christians in Rome are striking:<\/p>\n \u201cGreet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks; greet also the church in their house\u201d (Romans 16:3-5).<\/p>\n In Ephesus and Rome, the local church gathered in their house.<\/strong><\/p>\n Paul was at a particularly dark point of his second missionary journey when he first met Priscilla and Aquila. He had just been laughed off the stage at the Areopagus in Athens after trying to describe the One God and the Resurrection.<\/p>\n When he arrives in Corinth, the two give him the kind of hospitality only a married couple can give. They invite him into their home, support and assist him.<\/p>\n The \u201cchurch in their house\u201d Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 16:19 and Romans 16:5 is a Eucharistic assembly \u2014 a place for Masses to be held. Benedict XVI noted that this type of gathering was called ekklesia<\/em> in Greek, ecclesia<\/em> in Latin, and chiesa<\/em> in Italian \u2014 it was literally a domestic church.<\/p>\n Millennia later, the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Nos. 1655-1658) would say that every Christian home should be a domestic church \u2014 \u201cParents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children; they should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them,\u201d says Lumen Gentium <\/em>(No. 11).<\/p>\n That sounds like what Mother Seton described to her Italian Catholic mentors, the Filicchis, in September 1807:<\/p>\n \u201cThis day has been a feast day to the children and a holiday from school that I might give the greatest portion of the hours to God. You would have been pleased to hear their questions,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThey always wait on their knees after prayers till I bless them each with the Sign of the Cross and I look up to God with a humble hope that he will not forsake us.\u201d<\/p>\n But Priscilla and Aquila didn\u2019t just live their vocation as a domestic church; they were lay leaders in the Universal Church.<\/strong><\/p>\n Priscilla and Aquila have long been celebrated as lay leaders. In Orthodox Churches there is even a tradition that Aquila was one of the 72 disciples sent out by Our Lord in the Gospel of Luke. In Acts, while Paul is in Corinth, he hears in a vision, \u201cDo not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and \u2026 I have many people in this city\u201d (Acts 18:9-10).<\/p>\n Those many people include Priscilla and Aquila, who prove so invaluable that, when Paul\u2019s missionary journey continues, \u201cHe sailed together with Priscilla and Aquila.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, in Ephesus, \u201cPriscilla and Aquila led the community there and taught with zeal,\u201d according to the Vatican website\u2019s description of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s most significant convert was Apollos. They heard his powerful preaching about Scripture, but while he was \u201cfervent in spirit\u201d and \u201cspoke accurately the things concerning Jesus,\u201d he only knew the baptism of John. So the couple catechized the preacher, bringing him more fully into the faith of the Church.<\/p>\n Many centuries later, another Italian couple, Antonio and Amabilia Filicchi, met a fervent Christian who needed more catechesis \u2014 Elizabeth Ann Seton, who had traveled to Livorno, Italy, with her dying husband, William.<\/p>\n The Setons were devout Episcopalians. After William\u2019s death, the Filicchis introduced Elizabeth to the Catholic Mass, and the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, an encounter that would spark her eventual conversion to the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n After Priscilla and Aquila catechized Apollos, his preaching became so influential that he is mentioned with Paul and Peter as one of three major leaders to whom Christians were claiming allegiance in 1 Corinthians 1:12.<\/p>\n In a similar way, the Filicchis\u2019 witness helped make the hugely consequential work of Mother Seton possible.<\/p>\n But Priscilla and Aquila were also Jews who knew persecution firsthand.<\/strong><\/p>\n Their names may be Latin, but Priscilla and Aquila belonged to the Jewish community in Rome. When Claudius Caesar ordered the Jews to leave Rome, the couple went into exile from the city and eventually met Paul in Corinth. After Claudius\u2019s death in 54, they were able to return; by the time Paul wrote to the Romans, he could greet them again in Rome as his \u201cfellow workers in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n In a General Audience about the couple, Pope Benedict XVI notes that, in one historical account, the Jewish people were expelled from Rome because \u201cthey were rioting due to someone named Chrestus.\u201d That\u2019s a misspelling of Christ, says Benedict, and a sign that the two were already Christian when they moved to Corinth.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, it is as Jews that they were persecuted. Speaking about the couple in 2019, Pope Francis noted that the Jewish people have \u201csuffered greatly\u201d throughout history and said forcefully, \u201cThe Jews are our brothers! And they should not be persecuted. Understood?\u201d<\/p>\n Elizabeth Seton faced prejudice on a smaller scale when she lost old acquaintances after her conversion, and the anti-Catholicism in America made it difficult for her to pursue apostolic plans in New York.<\/p>\n But Sts. Aquila and Priscilla suffered the ultimate in persecution. Though the details of their deaths are uncertain, they are on the July 8 page of the Roman Martyrology, and tradition says they died for Christ together.<\/p>\n Thus they merged finally with the one who gave them their identity throughout their life: Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n A sacramentally married couple is an icon of Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every sacrament makes Christ present, including matrimony. This is made very clear in the New Testament references to Priscilla and Aquila, whom the Church sees as models for all married couples.<\/p>\n \u201cThis couple in particular demonstrates how important the action of Christian spouses is,\u201d said Pope Benedict XVI. \u201cNot by chance does Paul compare, in the Letter to the Ephesians, the matrimonial relationship to the spousal communion that happens between Christ and the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n Priscilla and Aquila\u2019s marriage changed the Church at its dawning in the way the Filicchis changed the Church in America, and the way our marriages will rewrite the future, if we are faithful.<\/p>\n Priscilla and Aquila\u2019s marriage helped shape the Church at its dawning, just as the Filicchis helped shape the Church in America, and our marriages today can help build the future of the Church, if we are faithful<\/p>\n TOM HOOPES<\/strong>,\u00a0autor m\u00e1s reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitri\u00f3n de La extraordinaria Stor<\/a>y podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco<\/a> ya est\u00e1 disponible en Audible<\/a>. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comit\u00e9 de Medios y Arbitrios de la C\u00e1mara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pas\u00f3 10 a\u00f1os como editor del peri\u00f3dico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.<\/em><\/p>\n