Santa Prisca

Tomorrow concludes the Roman Station Mass trek.  After an early morning Mass at Mary Majors, you have the Seven Churches Walk, which continues on (for 15 miles) to Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Sebastian’s, the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, Saint John Lateran’s and Saint Peter’s.  A practice begun by Saint Philip Neri, he would encouragingly call out along the way, “We’re Neri there!”

Well, perhaps not.

I have yet to visit today’s church on the Aventine Hill, as I had Mass with the sisters today.  One account of Saint Prisca identifies her as being one of Saint Peter’s converts, being baptized by him when she was 13.  Condemned to death by the Romans, she pulled a Daniel in the amphitheater and had a ravenous lion merely licking her feet instead of devouring her.  So the Romans cut off her head instead—making Prisca the first martyr in the west.