Prisca

ON S. PRISCA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, AT ROME.

Under the Emperor Claudius.

Prisca, Virgin and Martyr at Rome (S.)

From various sources.

Section I. The feast of S. Prisca, her acts, her era.

[1] The ancient Martyrologies celebrate the feast of the most noble Virgin Prisca on 18 January. For the common Bede, Ado, Notkerus, Bellinus: "On the same day, the feast of S. Prisca, virgin and martyr." Likewise Usuardus and very many manuscripts, of which some proclaim her Virgin only, The feast of S. Prisca; others Martyr only, as the old Roman and Rabanus also; and Wandelbertus:

"The fifteenth day likewise rejoices for Prisca the Martyr."

But the MS. of Rhinau: "At Rome, S. Prisca." The Roman: "On the same day, S. Prisca, Virgin Martyr, who under the Emperor Claudius was crowned with martyrdom after many torments." Nearly the same say Canisius, the Florarium, and other manuscripts. Likewise Maurolycus and Felicius, who attests that she is also venerated by others on 17 February.

[2] Galesinius writes that her Acts were committed to writing by the Notaries of the Holy Roman Church. The Acts. Whether they survive in genuine form is not known to us. What we give was furnished by an ancient manuscript codex of the monastery of S. Maximinus at Trier; and they agree with what the Roman Church recites in the ninth Lesson of today's office, as well as what Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, Antonius Gallonius in the book on the Roman Virgins, Silvanus Razzius in volume 1 on women illustrious for sanctity, our Ribadeneira in the Flower of the Saints, Petrus de Natalibus book 2, chapter 96, and others have recorded. These Galesinius summarized in his Martyrology: "At Rome, S. Prisca, Virgin and Martyr. Born of a consular father, in her thirteenth year she was accused of the Christian faith, and by order of the Emperor Claudius was urged to worship idols, which she resisted with resolute spirit: wherefore she was struck with blows and thrown into prison. The next day, being brought out and persisting in the same constancy of faith, she was tortured with scourges and foully anointed with boiling fat, and again thrust into custody. Three days later she was exposed to a lion but was in no way harmed, and was shut in a dungeon; where, nearly consumed by a fast of nearly three days, she was suspended on the rack: then torn with iron claws, afterward placed in fire, she was miraculously preserved unharmed by the help of God. Finally, outside the city, her head was cut off, and she crowned the palm of virginity with the crown of martyrdom."

[3] For the rest, these acts are altogether similar to the acts of SS. Martina and Tatiana, similar to the Acts of SS. Martina and Tatiana, as we also noted on 12 January, except that the latter are written to have suffered death under Alexander, Prisca under Claudius. Otherwise the same tortures were inflicted and repelled by the same prodigies; the same death followed the tyrant. Nor indeed is it unusual elsewhere that the devil, the artificer of crimes, should have furnished to the impious the same devices of cruelty and devised the same instruments of suffering. Nor could the almighty benignity of God not bring to his own both the same and different consolations and tokens of victory, as it pleased him. Certainly the deeds of Martina that we have related are remembered everywhere (for the name of Tatiana, or Datiana, is less celebrated among the Latins); and of Prisca, the Roman and other Breviaries and the remaining writers recount the contests in the same order and with the same outcome.

[4] Others attribute to her ten years of age, others eleven, most thirteen. Under which Claudius she was crowned (the first, who was the fourth emperor from Augustus, from the common year of Christ 41 to 54, or the second, When she was killed, from the year 268 to 270) is less clear. Gallonius and most others prefer the second; and he put to death many Christians, as will be said on 19 January and elsewhere. Octavius Pancirolus writes that in the very year in which S. Peter arrived at Rome she was baptized at the age of two, and killed eleven years later, the first of the Latin Martyrs.

[5] Baronius in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology wavers, uncertain of his opinion. For the fact that she is said to have been killed in the third year of Claudius undoubtedly pertains to the second; for it is not plausible that in the second year after the arrival of S. Peter in the City, which was the third year of Claudius I, such remarkable edicts, killings, and conversions were made, and Claudius reigned for 14 years, whether in the third year of Claudius II, whereas here the emperor who ordered her death is narrated to have himself perished shortly after Prisca's execution. The second, however, although, as Eutropius writes in book 9, he died within two years of his reign, nevertheless reached a span of three years, if one reckons them from the Kalends of January; for he appears to have been made Emperor around the 20th of March, while Aureolus was being besieged at Milan by the army, and this was announced to Rome on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, as is clear from Trebellius Pollio: that was the year of Christ 268, in the consulship of Ovinius Paternus for the second time and Marinianus. Then Trebellius again: "In the consulship of Atticianus and Orphitus, divine favor assisted the Claudian auspices." The consuls were Flavius Antiochianus, or Atticianus, and Furius Orfitus in the year 270, in which Claudius died. In support of this is the oracle that the same Trebellius records: "When on the Apennine (others read Aponinus, or the spring of Aponus) he consulted about himself, he received the following response:

'When the third summer shall have seen him reigning in Latium.'"

[6] Moreover, if Prisca died at the end of the reign of Claudius I, who was that Bishop of the City of Rome by whom her body was interred, while the Apostle Peter was still alive but in exile? The death said to have been divinely inflicted upon the tyrant, God avenging the killing of the Virgin, also lends credibility to the view that she contended for the faith under Claudius II, who died wretchedly in the year of Christ 270, whose dreadful death the pagan writers record ambiguously, so that you may understand that the divine vengeance was, as so often elsewhere, deliberately concealed by them. Aurelius Victor says only that he gave his life as a gift to the Republic; Eutropius, that he died of disease; Trebellius, that, stricken with disease, he departed from mortal things and sought the heaven familiar to his virtues; Zosimus, that since the plague had begun to rage among the Romans also, and among many others in the army who died, Claudius too had reached the end of his life. But again Trebellius: "And Dexippus indeed does not say that Claudius was killed, but only that he died. Yet he did not add 'of disease,' so that he seems to have held an uncertain opinion."

[7] But many monuments in the church of S. Prisca, as Baronius attests, record that she suffered while the Apostle Peter was still alive under the elder Claudius. "This indeed," he says, whether under the elder Claudius, "should not seem impossible (provided that for the third year the thirteenth be substituted), since before the first persecution that was carried out under Nero, Christians at Rome were often harassed and repressed, as the words of Tacitus, Annals book 15, seem to demonstrate, in which he says: 'And the deadly superstition, having been repressed for the present, was again breaking out.' These words he writes concerning the persecution then stirred up against them by Nero." Thus it should not seem so astonishing if S. Prisca is said to have suffered martyrdom in the last years of the elder Claudius. So says Baronius. But Tacitus, in the cited passage, seems merely to signify that the Christian religion was repressed through Pontius Pilate, by the execution of Christ: in which, however, he is gravely mistaken, for the faith then began to be most widely propagated. Yet it is certain that Christians were harassed by Claudius, since what is said in Acts 18:2, that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, was directed chiefly against the Christians, hostile to Christians, as may be gathered from Suetonius, who writes thus in his Life of Claudius, chapter 25: "He expelled from Rome the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus." That he also raged against others, even those of Roman birth, will easily be conjectured by anyone who remembers what Aurelius Victor writes: that not only were the notorious Druidic superstitions suppressed by him in Gaul, evidently out of zeal for Roman rites, but that Messalina his wife, with immense license either permitted by her husband or arrogated by herself, ran riot with adulteries, murders, and the prostitution of married women and virgins; that Agrippina was scarcely more mild; and that the freedmen, having obtained supreme power, defiled everything with debaucheries, exile, murder, and proscriptions: so that it seems not easy that tranquility could have existed for Christian sanctity and innocence, especially in an illustrious household, under a prince devoted to superstitions and conniving at every kind of vice.

[8] Nor, even if she was killed under the elder Claudius, is she the Prisca whom Paul bids be greeted in the letter to the Romans, chapter 16, with these words: "Greet Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus." For that letter was written when Nero was already administering the empire, She is different from Prisca, or Priscilla, the wife of Aquila, and the second letter to Timothy, sent from the City in the times of Nero, chapter 4, sends greetings to the same couple, who had returned to Asia and were residing at Ephesus; and they are the ones mentioned in Acts 18, exiled from Rome -- Aquila, or Acylas, a Jew, a native of Pontus, and Priscilla, or Prisca, his wife -- who are venerated on 8 July.

Section II. The church and relics of S. Prisca.

[9] Octavius Pancirolus writes that Aquila of Pontus and Prisca had a house on the Aventine, and that it was dedicated as a church for Christians. And S. Paul mentions their domestic church both at Rome and at Ephesus. The church of S. Prisca at Rome: Into this church was brought the body of the Virgin Prisca from the place of her earlier burial and martyrdom, on the Via Ostiensis, by Pope S. Eutychianus; and the building was thereafter called by the name of S. Prisca: it was subsequently inhabited, as the same Octavius attests, by Greek monks whom the iconoclast Emperors had driven from the East.

[10] Anastasius Bibliothecarius mentions this church in his life of Adrian I: "He likewise made anew the roof of the title of B. Prisca, frequently restored, which was already about to collapse and lay in ruins, and there he also made a vestment of stauracin cloth." Finally, in the time of Pope Paschal II, shortly after the year 1100, the oratory of S. Prisca, consumed by age, was demolished, and a new church was built, as we shall say below from Eadmer the Englishman. Afterward, Calixtus III, who reigned from 8 April 1455 to 6 August 1458, restored the church of S. Prisca on the Aventine, as Platina and Bzovius write. Finally, Benedictus Justinianus restored the facade of the same basilica from the foundations and raised it higher and into a more elegant form, recently with new embellishment, the forecourt having been enlarged. He also renovated the Confessio, and the chapel beneath it, whose altar is believed to be the one that the Apostle S. Peter dedicated, where also the bodies of SS. Aquila and Priscilla, and of Prisca the Virgin, were interred. He then adorned the same church with a gilded ceiling. So Pancirolus, region 9, church 27. Baronius also attests that the altar there is said to have been consecrated by S. Peter. The Church of S. Prisca is indeed among the most ancient Titles.

[11] Relics at Rome. Pancirolus attests that the body of the most holy Virgin is preserved in her same basilica, and that parts of her vestments are in the Vatican church of S. Peter and in S. Lawrence in Panisperna. But Eadmer, book 4 of the History of Recent Events, records that one bone of the same heroine had been carried to Gaul long before: "In those days," he says (that is, while S. Anselm was in exile at Lyons in Gaul, A bone carried to Gaul, with Henry I reigning in England, in the year of Christ 1103), "Gualo, Bishop of Paris, coming from Rome to us, brought relics of the body of the blessed Martyr Prisca that had been given to him at Rome, and from them he gave to me, in the presence of Father Anselm, a small portion. And when that portion seemed exceedingly small to me, and I asked the Bishop to increase it, Anselm restrained me, saying that what I had was sufficient; 'For since,' he said, 'the bone itself is from her body, as long as she shall lack it, she will not have the integrity of her person. Wherefore if you preserve it worthily, and serve its Lady, to whom it belongs, with whatever devotion you can in that bone, she will accept the tribute of your service as gratefully as if you served her entire body.' I acquiesced in what he said, and I keep what I received with diligent care."

[12] The same Eadmer, or Edmer, narrates this more fully in the life of S. Anselm, which we shall give on 21 April: "Meanwhile," he says, "Walo, Bishop of Paris, came to us, a man of good piety and imbued from an early age with the institutions of ecclesiastical customs. He, well known at Rome and having performed the service of an apostolic legation, enjoyed the friendship of Father Anselm. Accordingly, coming to us from Rome, he was carrying with him relics of certain Saints, which, as we found out with certainty, he had received at Rome as gifts. And so, speaking with Anselm in my presence, he informed him of what relics he had brought with him from Rome. When Anselm gave thanks to God for this, the Bishop produced from a small box one bone, which he declared to be from the head of the holy Martyr of God Prisca, and immediately adding an account of how he had obtained it, given by a Cardinal to the Bishop of Paris, he said: 'I was at Rome, and the oratory of the said Martyr, in which the most blessed Prince of the Apostles Peter had consecrated an altar, was pulled down, consumed by age, and the body of the Martyr, to be placed in a new church, was lifted up in my presence. Accordingly, since the Cardinal of the place held the relics under his own authority, and he was a friend of mine, he gave me this bone, which you see, taken from the sacred body, as a token of mutual affection.'"

[13] "The Bishop had finished his account. But I, drawn by love of these same relics, began to entreat the Bishop to give me a portion from that very bone. And he said, 'Take it, and whatever you can break off at the first attempt shall be yours.' A small piece given to Eadmer the historian. I took it, and behold, beyond what I had hoped, at the first attempt a single small piece remained in my right hand. And since I could not conceal the sorrow of my heart at its smallness, and was most eagerly wishing to be allowed to break off once more, Anselm cut short my desire and said: 'Do not, do not; let what you have suffice you. For in truth I tell you, for all the gold that is in Constantinople and beyond and this side of it, the Lady herself, whose it is, would not fail to claim it for herself on the day of the resurrection of all. Wherefore if you show her due reverence, it will suffice just as much as if you served her whole body.' Hearing this I acquiesced, and as fittingly as I could, I have preserved it from that time until now. Concerning this bone, after many days Peter, a certain Cluniac monk, a man of great authority in his time, who was Chamberlain of the Lord Pope Urban and Paschal, came to us and was asked by me what he thought about it. And he, when he learned from my account how I had obtained it, confessed that what the Bishop had said about it was entirely true, and declared that he himself had been present when the same bone, taken from the body of the Martyr, was received from the Cardinal."

[14] Certain relics of S. Prisca brought to Chimay. A portion of the relics of S. Prisca was also once brought to Chimay. Chimay is a town of Belgium in the County of Hainaut, ennobled with the title of Principality. Here there is a college of Canons in the basilica sacred to S. Monegundis, of whom we shall treat on 2 July: her relics there, in a silver-gilt casket, and in another those of S. Prisca, Virgin and Martyr, are customarily preserved, and each set is carried in solemn procession by two Canons. Both perished in the year 1552 when the French devastated the town with fire. In the middle of the choir, however, this inscription is still to be seen in French, which in Latin sounds thus: By Count John: afterward lost. "Here lies the noble man John, Count of Soissons, Lord of Chimay, who brought the body of S. Prisca from Rome and died in the year 1282." So states Miraeus in his Belgian Calendar, and Molanus in the Calendar of the Saints of Belgium under 2 July. Saussay also records this under 18 January. That John was the third of that name as Count of Soissons, the second Lord of Chimay, which title he used while his father John the Good was still alive. His mother was Maria, daughter of Roger, Lord of Towers and Chimay, and his heiress. John married Margaret of Montfort, and by her had John IV and Ralph. Their entire genealogy is traced by Andreas du Chesne, book 4 of the history of the Chatillon family, chapter 3, where he says John died around the year 1284.

ACTS

from the MS. of the monastery of S. Maximinus.

Prisca, Virgin and Martyr at Rome (S.)

BHL Number: 6926

From manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

The arrest of S. Prisca. The first interrogation against her.

[1] In the reign of Claudius Caesar, in an uncertain year of his reign, The Emperor Claudius I persecuting Christians, he himself issued a new and most wicked decree throughout the whole world, that Christians should either sacrifice or, if they did not sacrifice, be handed over to death. He dispatched governors and judges imbued with diabolical seduction. For the decree was issued with fierce threats, so that the worship of the Christians should be destroyed, putting forward a new prescription for sacrifices to their most wicked and polluted gods; which the Emperor commanded to be carried out, and those who consented to sacrifice to be made worthy of great honor; but those who despised and refused to sacrifice to be afflicted with cruel torments. Now Claudius the Emperor himself was performing sacrifices in the temple of Apollo, and while he sacrificed to Apollo, and he commanded that with great terror the soldiers should arrest those known to profess the Christian religion, men and women, that, afflicted with punishments, they should sacrifice to the gods.

[2] Then there were wicked men who were sent to destroy the worship of the Christians: S. Prisca is arrested: and coming to a certain church, they found there B. Prisca at prayer. She was of noble birth, her father a three-time consul, exceedingly rich. She was in her eleventh year, adorned with good works and the grace of God in her conduct. The agents of the Emperor said to her: "Our lord Claudius desires that you should willingly offer sacrifice to the great god Apollo." But B. Prisca said to them with a cheerful spirit: "First let me enter the holy universal Church, that I may commend myself to my Lord Jesus Christ, and then let us set out in peace. For I must both confound Claudius, who is unworthy of the empire, for the sake of Christ, and stand victorious before our Savior Jesus Christ." And entering the temple she completed her petition.

[3] When her prayer was finished she hastened with them to the Emperor. The ministers entered and said to the Emperor: She is led to the Emperor. "This woman consents to the command of your empire." The Emperor, hearing this, was greatly pleased and ordered her to be led into the Palace. When she had entered the Palace, the Emperor said: "Great are you, god Apollo, and glorious above all gods, who have fashioned this virgin of illustrious birth, beautiful in countenance, serene in mind." And saying this he said to B. Prisca: "For I have arranged for you to come to me, so that I may have you shown forth as a Lady under the might of my empire." To this B. Prisca said: "For I shall sacrifice without blood to the immaculate God and my Lord Jesus Christ."

[4] The Emperor, hearing this and not understanding what she had said, ordered her to enter the temple of Apollo to sacrifice to him. But the Saint, having been ordered to enter, said with a cheerful countenance to the Emperor: "Enter yourself with the priests of Apollo, and let them see how the almighty Lord graciously receives the undefiled sacrifices of his faithful." The Emperor then ordered all those standing around to watch closely what was being done by her. B. Prisca said: "Glory to you, glorious Father; I invoke you, I beseech you, cast down this immovable and deaf idol: for it is clay and defiles all who put their trust in it. But you, O God, hear me a sinner, that this Emperor may know that he has vain hope in his idols, because we must adore no other God but you alone." At her prayers the idol collapses, along with part of the temple, And while she was praying this, immediately a great earthquake occurred, so that the city was shaken; and Apollo fell and was shattered to pieces: in like manner a fourth part of the temple was destroyed, and it crushed a multitude of pagans together with the priests of the idols. And in the midst of the earthquake, the Emperor, seized with terror, took flight. B. Prisca said to him: She addresses the Emperor. "Emperor, stop and help, for Apollo is broken, and gather up his fragments; moreover, since his priests have been crushed by this same ruin, let him now come and help them."

[5] And the demon who dwelt in the idol cried out with a loud voice, saying: "O Virgin Prisca, handmaid of the great God who is in heaven, She puts to flight the wailing demon: who keeps his commandments, you have stripped me of my dwelling place! For I have dwelt in it for sixty-seven years, and under Claudius Caesar for twelve years. For many of the holy Martyrs who passed by never exposed me; and having under me ninety-three most wicked spirits, I commanded them, and each of them brought me fifty human souls daily. O Emperor, crusher of Christians, you have found a holy soul through whom your empire shall end in disgrace." And the demon, crying and shrieking through the air with a great voice, wherever it went, darkness was seen: and all who beheld it were filled with doubt.

[6] The Emperor, however, not understanding that the idol had been shattered by divine grace, ordered her face to be beaten with blows. And while she was struck for a long time, the executioners grew faint, She is beaten with blows: and they cried out, saying: "Woe to us sinners! Truly we are more tormented than she; for she, remaining unharmed, strikes us. We beseech you, therefore, Emperor, command that she be taken from us." But the Emperor, greatly angered against them, commanded them to beat the face of B. Prisca all the more severely. But the holy Prisca, looking up to heaven, said: "Blessed are you, Lord Jesus Christ, for you give eternal grace to those who believe in you." And when she had offered this prayer, She is strengthened by a heavenly voice, a resplendent light surrounded her, and a voice came from heaven saying: "Daughter, take heart and do not fear, for I am the one whom you adore and invoke as God: I will never forsake you." At these words the Emperor was made utterly senseless.

CHAPTER II.

Repeated interrogations. Idols overturned.

[7] On another day, sitting at his tribunal, he said: "Let the wicked Prisca, the sorceress, be brought in, Responding fearlessly to the tyrant, that we may see her enchantments once more." When she entered, the Emperor said to her: "Consent to me and sacrifice to the gods." But she answered: "Cease, most wicked of men and son of your father the devil. Are you not ashamed to be overcome by a girl and trampled underfoot with me, since you cannot make me bow to sacrifice to idols?" Then the enraged Emperor ordered her to be stripped and beaten again. But the holy Prisca appeared white as snow, and her body shone so brightly that the splendor of her radiance caused those who looked upon her to be dazzled. She is beaten again, B. Prisca, as she was being beaten, said to the Lord: "With my voice I cried to the Lord, and he heard me in the contest of my passion." The Emperor, hearing her say this, said in great anger: "Do you think to seduce me with your sorceries?" B. Prisca said to the Emperor: Also with cudgels: "Your father Satan is the prince of all sorceries, who loves fornicators and embraces sorcerers." The Emperor then ordered her to be beaten still more with cudgels. The Saint, smiling at the one who was inflicting punishments upon her, said: "O unjust and damnable one, enemy of the judgment of God and seeker of evils, do you not perceive the benefits that are wrought in me by the eternal Creator, as though you were senseless?"

[8] Limenius, a kinsman of the Emperor, said to him: "This polluted woman does not endure these punishments for the glory of the Christians and the Crucified One; but she, shining like a ray of the sun, thinks to obtain all things thereby. Let your power now command that she be thrust into prison until tomorrow, and that she be washed with boiling melted fat, and thus we shall defile her brightness." The Emperor at once ordered her to be put into prison until the next day. When she was being led to prison she cried out before the people with a loud voice, saying: "I give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, and I beseech your holy grace, She sings psalms in prison: guard me, Lord, from the most wicked and contaminated Claudius, for he counts your goodness as nothing." Throughout the whole night the Saint was in prison singing hymns and glorifying God. And the voices of many men were heard glorifying God with her. She is visited by Angels and Saints. When morning came, he ordered his men to bring her out of prison, but first to anoint her with fat and grease. But Limenius, proceeding from the palace, smelled an odor of sweetness, and, filled with the scent of many spices, said to his companions: "Do you also smell this great fragrance?" And they said: The prison exhaling a most sweet odor. "The gods have produced this odor for their beloved Prisca." And all were saying that the gods had appeared favorably to her. Coming to the prison they found B. Prisca seated on an imperial throne; and a multitude of Angels was around her, whose brightness could not be beheld. She was holding a tablet and reading these words: "How magnificent are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom." Ps. 103:6 And Limenius, filled with fear, departed from there and went to the palace and reported to the Emperor the great wonders of God. The Emperor ordered her to come to the temple and sacrifice and live; or, if she did not sacrifice, to be handed over to the beasts. B. Prisca was saying: "I have run the way of your commandments; teach me your statutes, and I shall learn the wonders of your divinity. Deliver me from the torments of men, that I may keep your commandments." While she was saying these things, they resolved to overturn the throne; but the men standing around her in white garments were nowhere to be seen.

[9] The Emperor, seeing her face more cheerful than it had been before, She is again brought before the Emperor and responds to him nobly, said to her: "Have you corrected yourself and turned to sacrifice to the benign gods?" But she said to him: "Emperor, my conversion is complete, because you do not persuade me to attend to your contentions; for I have been freed from your vanities and the impieties of the most vain seductions of this world, having received a command from the Lord my God. For me it is good to cling to God and to place my hope in the Lord God, who holds truth, and nothing shall be wanting to me, for my God is almighty. The seduction of your words is but dark arrows, directing one toward a dismal path. But the death of the Saints, who have surrounded me and contained all things, brings me joy, and they have bound your father the devil."

[10] The Emperor in anger said to her: "You shall not die, Prisca, but enter and sacrifice." Prisca said: "Do you bid me enter the temple, Emperor?" Her very presence terrifies the demon. To this the Emperor said: "Enter and sacrifice, lest you perish by beasts." S. Prisca said: "By the grace of my God, generously aiding me in my humble contest, and at your command I shall enter." Now the demon who dwelt in the idol knew that the Saint had come to destroy him, and cried out in a great voice, saying: "Woe to me, where shall I flee from your spirit, O God of heaven? Fire pursues me from the four corners of the temple." S. Prisca entered, making the sign of the cross in the name of Christ, and looking at the statue of the idol, said to the Emperor: "See the deception, Emperor: eyes that see not, ears that hear not, hands that feel not, feet that walk not -- a vain apparition of a debased effigy. Do you then wish, She shatters the idol by her prayers, many killed from heaven, Emperor, that I should sacrifice to it?" The Emperor, made joyful, said: "Long may you live for the gods, since you have consented to me!" And B. Prisca approached the idol and said: "I say to you who dwell in this deaf and mute idol, come forth." Saying this to the idol, she poured out a prayer to the Lord, saying: "O eternal King and God, who established the heavens and founded the earth, who created the waters, who crushed the dragon; I beseech you, Lord, that you do not forsake me; but receive my prayer, and destroy this idol made by the hand of man, and cause Claudius, full of the seduction of the demon and of all malice, to know by various torments that you are blessed forever, Amen." And immediately there was a great thunderclap, and fire fell from heaven, and burned the priests from the temple, and a multitude of people died, and it burned the right side of the Emperor's purple robe, and reduced the idol to ashes. B. Prisca said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will."

CHAPTER III.

Swords, beasts, and flames overcome.

[11] And the enraged Emperor, not considering the miracle nor the power of the invisible God, said to the Prefect: "Take this sorceress and have her whole body torn apart with sharp iron hooks, so that she may more quickly depart from the light of this world. For I am filled with great grief and know not what to do." She is handed over to the Prefect for torture: The Prefect, receiving her, immediately went to the praetorium and, sitting at his tribunal, ordered B. Prisca to be brought in, saying: "Let the destroyer of the temple enter, and let me see what she wants." B. Prisca entered the praetorium smiling. The Prefect said: "Do you mock me, wicked woman, because you are still allowed to live? By the most pure sun, I shall have your innards thrown to the dogs if you do not sacrifice to the gods, that I may see what comfort your Christ will provide you." B. Prisca said: "O impious one, I do not mock you for the power of your Emperor, because he was vanquished by a girl through Jesus Christ, and has again handed me over to you?" The Prefect said: "He is lord and has power, therefore he has handed you over to me, that you may sacrifice or perish by punishments." B. Prisca said: "I will not sacrifice; She is cut with swords: inflict whatever punishment you wish." Then the Prefect ordered her to be stretched out and her limbs cut with swords. As she was being cut, she cried out saying: "Lord Jesus, help me, for to you I have fled."

[12] The Prefect, driven senseless, ordered her to be thrown into prison. She, binding up her holy body and covering it with the hair of her head, quickly entered the prison. The Prefect, riding on horseback, went to the prison and found the Saint again seated on a lofty throne, her face resplendent like a ray of the sun. Greatly troubled, he departed, Singing psalms in prison, she is refreshed by heavenly light: and closed the prison and sealed it with his ring, and left nearly fifty guards, and went to the Emperor. B. Prisca was singing psalms and glorifying God, and a great light was in that dwelling place. When he entered the Emperor's presence, he found him in the palace. The Emperor, seeing him, said in amazement: "Why have you come here?" He said: "As your imperial majesty commanded me, I afflicted the wicked Prisca most severely, cutting her with swords and scraping her with hooks and leaving her to die; and she has neither died nor sacrificed. Behold, I have done what was commanded of me; it is yours to consider what you command concerning her." The Emperor said to him: "The confidence of her security is clear, which she has through her enchantments. Let her be handed over to the beasts, to be torn apart and perish." The Prefect was silent.

[13] When morning came, he dispatched the executioners to her. When she entered, the Prefect said: "The Emperor has ordered you to sacrifice; but if you do not sacrifice, you are to be handed over to the beasts." B. Prisca, shining like a ray of the sun, said: "I, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us, remaining in glory for those who believe in him, trust that I shall vanquish you." Hearing this, the Prefect, exceedingly angered, said to the Emperor: She is thrown to the lions; "I beseech my lord to come with me to the amphitheater." The Emperor at once went with him; and together they had her cast among the wild beasts. B. Prisca said: "Behold my sacrifice also." The Prefect said: "See, Emperor, this sorceress who shattered our gods: let her be torn apart by the beasts." Now there was also another lion, most savage, which consumed seven sheep daily. This lion had not eaten for four days, so that it might devour B. Prisca. The Emperor, seated and in a state of sorrow, commanded her to enter. When she entered, a great sound came from heaven, so that all were filled with terror. And the Emperor said to her: "Believe and consent to me; by my gods, I love you greatly, and would dissolve the great wrath that surrounds you." But B. Prisca, raising her eyes to heaven, said: "Lord Jesus Christ, who have made known the knowledge of your divinity and have crowned your Saints, keep me perfect in this contest." And to the Emperor she said: "O wretched one, know that I am more willing to be devoured by the beasts, that I may merit the eternal life that is with Christ, than to consent to your seduction and fall into the snare of eternal death." The Emperor then ordered the most ferocious lion to be released to devour her. And the lion was roaring in his den, so as to terrify all. The keeper opened the gate for the lion, and the lion came out roaring and breaking into a run, and went toward the Saint, showing not terror but affection; and bowing down he worshipped her and kissed her feet. B. Prisca, praying to God, said: She is not harmed, "Lord, do not permit me to share in their penal agony; keep my soul whole and safe in your mercy, my God." And saying this she said to the Emperor: "See, Emperor, the power of punishments and beasts that you have brought upon me, for Christ, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them, is most victorious. For all things are subject to him, by the will of the Father." The Emperor, seeing the lion tame and showing reverence and love toward the Saint, said to her: "Humble yourself and confess the gods; for they are the ones who help you." But B. Prisca said: "They cannot help themselves; how then do they help me? A kinsman of the tyrant killed by the beast. In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, through my contest and martyrdom, they have been reduced to nothing." The Emperor ordered the lion to return to his den. But before he entered, the lion made an attack upon one of the Emperor's kinsmen and killed him. Then the Emperor in anger ordered the Saint to be thrust back into prison. Impelled by the grace of God, she went saying: "Guard me, Lord, from the snare they have set for me, and from the stumbling blocks of those who work iniquity."

[14] After three days the Emperor ordered a sacrifice to be made in the temple, and ordered the Saint to be brought, and B. Prisca came resplendent like the sun. And the Emperor said to her: "Believe and sacrifice, and you shall be saved." The blessed Virgin answered: "I do sacrifice, and I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ." Then the Emperor in anger ordered her to be suspended and scraped with hooks. She is scraped with hooks. As she was pulled she said: "You have gladdened me, Lord, in your will, and in the works of your hands I shall exult. Your judgments, Lord, are the true eternal light; for the incisions have entered even to her bones." While she was saying this, The torment is turned back upon the lictors: immediately the arms and bones of those who were torturing her began to ache; and they said to the Emperor: "We beseech you, Emperor, free us from these punishments. For the Angels of God are tormenting us."

[15] The Emperor ordered her to be given over to fire and consumed. The ministers did what had been commanded them by the Emperor, She is cast into the fire, and they kindled a great fire and threw her into the midst of it. B. Prisca said with a loud voice: Unharmed: "Lord, who looked down from heaven to see if there is anyone who understands or seeks God, help me your handmaid." The Emperor was in great sorrow because he was being vanquished by a girl. And immediately a great rain fell, and it burned all those who were standing around.

[16] And the enraged Emperor ordered the hair of her head to be shaved. Her hair is shaved, 1 Cor. 11:15. The ministers did what was commanded them, and they shaved her head. She said: "It is written in the Apostle: 'If a woman has long hair, it is her glory.' But you have cut off the hair of my head which God gave me. May God take your kingdom from you." She is shut in a temple: The Emperor then ordered her to go into a temple, and he closed the door of the temple and sealed it with his ring, and entered his palace. The Saint remained glorifying God through the whole night and day. The Emperor and the priests entered the temple every day; She is visited by Angels. but they did not enter where she was, because the voices of many Angels were heard. The Emperor said to those who were with him: "Great is our god whom we worship; he has gathered all the gods to instruct and fortify Prisca." On the third day, he ordered a sacrifice of bulls to be made. The crowds, opening the door of the temple, The idol overturned: saw B. Prisca seated on a throne, and with her a company of Angels whose beauty cannot be described, and they saw that their god had fallen to the ground and was reduced to dust. The Emperor, astonished, said to her: "Where is our god?" S. Prisca said: "Do you not see that he has been reduced to dust?"

CHAPTER IV.

Death, burial, translation.

[17] At this the Emperor, exceedingly enraged, ordered her to be led outside the city and her head to be cut off by the sword. The holy Martyr Prisca, rejoicing at her departure from this laborious world, prayed, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, liberator of all, I praise and adore you, I beseech you and supplicate you, who have delivered me from the many evils that were shown to me; save me, Lord Jesus Christ, She is beheaded, with whom there is no respect of persons; command me, perfected in the confession of your name, to be received into your glory, that I may splendidly escape the evil by which I am surrounded. But repay the wicked Claudius as he has dealt with me, your handmaid." And saying this she said to the executioners: "Complete in what you have been dispatched the orders given you," She is invited to heaven by a heavenly voice, and thus B. Prisca finished her life by the sword, and a voice came from heaven saying: "Because you have fought for my name, Prisca, enter into the kingdom of heaven with all the Saints." And when this voice had sounded, the executioners fell on their faces and died.

[18] Then it was reported to the Bishop of the city of Rome by a certain Christian, where he was sitting in hiding, how and in what manner they had taken S. Prisca outside Rome, on the Via Ostiensis, about ten miles from the city, and where they had beheaded her, Two eagles guard the body: and how they had left her there. Then the Bishop, when he heard this, went with the one who had reported it to him, and they found her lying there, and one eagle sitting at her head and another sitting at her feet, guarding her body so that it might not be touched by beasts. Her head was luminous, her face bright, smiling in the Holy Spirit. The Bishop himself, She is buried, together with the one who had come with him, dug her grave, and there they buried her.

[19] When the Emperor heard this, he was struck with pain of heart on that same day, The tyrant dies, and like a rabid dog he was devouring his own flesh, and groaning and trembling he said: "Have mercy on me, O God of the Christians. I know that I have transgressed your commandments, O Christ, and I blasphemed you, I persecuted your name, and I sinned ungratefully against your handmaid. Justly am I tortured by you; as I have done, you have repaid me." He expired amid great torment, much torn and mangled, and a voice came from heaven: "Enter, Emperor, into the furnace of Gehenna; go into the outer darkness; for dismal places of punishment are prepared for you, for which you were born." And there was a great earthquake, and on that same day there believed, of those who were in the city of Rome, on account of the voice that came from heaven, more than five thousand, Very many are converted, not counting children and women. The martyrdom of S. Prisca was completed in the month of January on the eighteenth day.

[20] Not long afterward, the faithful of Christ built a church there, and they served the Lord day and night. Her venerable body lay there until the time of the Emperor ... , and thus by the grace of Christ it was revealed to the most holy and most reverend Bishop of the Apostolic See of the City of Rome, Eutychianus, and he summoned a meeting with the clergy and faithful laity, and had a sarcophagus of marvelous beauty prepared; and so he himself went with the entire Roman clergy, and where she had been revealed she appeared, and they dug, and found her there; and so with loving care, with great devotion and veneration, they raised the most blessed and most holy body of B. Prisca, Virgin and Martyr, The body of S. Prisca is transferred to the City, and they brought it to the city of Rome with hymns and spiritual canticles, near the Roman Arch, to the church of the holy Martyrs Aquila and Prisca, and there they placed the most holy body, praising and glorifying the almighty God who is in heaven, to whom is honor and glory with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever, Amen.