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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (18. January) is the feast day of: Prisca of Rome (??). Today's P., as opposed to the Priscilla of 16. January, is pretty clearly the saint of the _titulus Priscae_ on the Aventine. That church is attested from the fifth century; the Gregorian Sacramentary in its Paduan version (early eighth century) records a dedication feast for it on this day. In the course of the sixth century P., like the eponyms of other of Rome's _tituli_, came to be referred to as a saint. An addition to the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology records her feast today, as do the Roman _Capitularia Evangeliorum_ and various texts of the Gregorian Sacramentary. The seventh-century pilgrim itineraries for Rome all note the presence of the martyr P.'s tomb in the cemetery of Priscilla. In Ado and in Usuard P. is a virgin martyr. P. has an undated, legendary Passio (BHL 6296; no witness earlier than the twelfth century) that makes her a girl of eleven years, martyred under an emperor Claudius, buried on the Via Ostiense, and later translated to the church of the holy martyrs Aquila and Prisca (as the _titulus [s.] Priscae_ was known in at least the eighth century). The latter dedication makes it clear that P. was also thought of as the Prisca of Aquila and Prisca, St. Peter's hosts in Rome. The crypt of today's titular and stational church of Santa Prisca, the successor, after many restorations and rebuildings, of the original _titulus Priscae_, is said to have a thirteenth-century mosaic of St. Peter. It also has this baptismal font created (also, it is said, in the thirteenth century) out of an ornate second-century column capital and supposedly used by Peter to baptize P.: http://web.tiscali.it/SantaPrisca/Battistero.jpg While we are on the subject of Prisca and Peter, it may be well to recall that from early times until the rearrangement of the Roman Calendar in 1969 today was also the feast day of: The Chair of Peter at Rome. There was also a feast, on 22. February, of the Chair of Peter at Antioch. Today's feast of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle falls on the latter day. Here's a copy of a photograph, taken in 1867, of the Vatican's chair (which latter has a legendary history associating it, _inter alia_, with the baptistery of Santa Prisca): http://www.newadvent.org/images/03551eax.jpg Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html