Today, the Church gives us two people from the New Testament with six mentions. Saints Priscilla and Aquila were a first century Christian missionary married couple described in the New Testament as helpers of the Apostle Paul. Aquila is traditionally listed among the Seventy Disciples. The husband and wife team lived, worked, and traveled with the Apostle Paul, who described them as his “fellow workers in Christ Jesus”. Priscilla is known as a tentmaker.
Saint Paul in his Letter to the Romans, tells us about the couple: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them” (Romans 16:3-4).
St. Luke in Acts 18:26 writes: “He [Apollos] began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”
Priscilla and Aquila helped to train Apollos in the ways of the Lord, even with no “professional” training in being a missionary. Apollos’ mission work takes seriously the Lord’s exhortation to “Go, make disciples of all nations.” In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentioned how Apollos proclaimed the gospel to the Corinthian congregation.
Often the question surfaces: Who are the husband and wife saints? Well, here are two Priscilla and Aquila. And missionary martyrs, too boot.