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Enter into the underground... |
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written
by calaroni / 09.08.2004 |
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Personal Observations |
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| An Icon of Saint Priscilla |
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During my research of the catacombs, the elements that caught my attention the most were the contradictions of “facts.” Movies and stories have dramatized the catacombs, portraying them as hiding grounds for the Christians to escape the furious persecutions aboveground. As my research continued, I found this was merely a myth. The catacombs were Christian burial places, it is that simple. “The early Christians did not bury their faith nor their lives in the underground, but lived common people lives in their families, in society, in all activities, jobs and professions. They testified their faith everywhere, but it was in the catacombs that those heroic Christians found the strength and support to face the trials and persecutions, as they prayed to God through the martyrs' intercession.”
Since the particular catacomb we are visiting is names after “Priscilla,” I set out to find who this Priscilla was, and why the catacomb was named after her. It seemed like a simple task from the get-go, but proved to be much harder as none of my resources on the catacomb itself mentioned Priscilla at all. As my research continued, it seemed as though no one was quite sure who Priscilla even was. My best assumption is that the Catacomb of Priscilla is named after St. Priscilla, who, according to Catholic Online, was the wife of Aquila, a Jewish tentmaker. Priscilla and Aquila were forced to leave Rome when Emperor Claudius forbade Jews to live there. They traveled to Corinth, where St. Paul lived with them during his stay there and may have converted them to Christianity. They followed Paul to Ephesus and stayed with him on his third missionary journey. They then returned to Rome, where their house was also used as a church, and then returned to Ephesus. The couple was martyred in Asia Minor, although tradition has it that they were martyred in Rome.
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