The Holy Apostle Aquila of the Seventy, and St. Priscilla (1st c.)
Aquila was one of the Seventy Apostles. A Jew, he first lived in Italy with his wife Priscilla. When Emperor Claudius decreed that all Jews be driven from Rome and Italy, Aquila settled in Corinth. There, the Apostle Paul met him for the first time, remaining in his home for a year and a half and baptizing him and his wife. Burning with zeal for the Christian Faith, Aquila and Priscilla accompanied Paul to Ephesus and assisted him in his apostolic labors. At Ephesus, Paul wrote his first Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he said:
Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house
(I Corinthians 16:19). After the death of Emperor Claudius, the Jews were permitted to go back to Italy, and Aquila and Priscilla returned to Rome. When the apostle later wrote the Epistle to the Romans from Corinth, he greeted his old friends and co-laborers:
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus; who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles
(Rom 16:3–4). We later find Aquila in Ephesus, where he labored with St. Timothy. In chains in Rome,
Paul wrote to Timothy in Ephesus:
Salute Priscilla and Aquila
(II Tim 4:19). As a bishop, Aquila baptized many and enlightened them with the Faith; he destroyed idols, built churches, ordained priests, and spread among men the glory of the Incarnate Son of God. He was finally murdered by wicked heathens, and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ.
