Akylas and Priscilla… the orthodox Valentines

St Valentine’s day, which has been celebrated as lovers’ day in Europe since medieval times, has been established in the minds of most people as the official day of love.

Even though there is no information who Valentine was, and even though the Catholic church does not include it in the official calendar, the significance of February 14 for lovers worldwide is undisputed, so much so that it has downgraded the traditional Orthodox one on February 13, the day of St Akylas and Priscilla, the Orthodox Valentines who were martyred for their faith.

Akylas was a Hebrew born in Pontos. At a young age he must have moved to Rome, where he possibly met Priscilla, a Roman who belonged to a higher caste, and married her. As an answer to the turmoil caused by the Orthodox and Christian Jews of Rome as concerns the person of Jesus, the 4th Emperor, Claudius, ordered the evacuation of all the Jewish residents.

The couple reached Korinthos around 50 AD, where they met with the Apostle Paul, who had just concluded his teaching in Athens. Paul was a tent maker, refusing to finance his missionary work from the churches of the era, and he met and befriended the couple who were doing the same thing for a living. They were initiated into Christianity and baptized by Paul himself.

Their devotion to him was such that they followed him on his Asia Minor journey, where they stayed for most of their short lives, embarking on rich apostolic work. From Syria they went to Ephesus, where they took up a leading role in the local Christian community.

In the New Testament, references to their names are a research topic for theologians, for both their names are mentioned the same number of times, which makes many researchers believe that even though the position of  women was lower, their apostolic work was considered of equal importance.

Their success in spreading Christianity made them prominent members of the proto-Christian church.  However, they were hated by the fanatical pagans found around the famous temple of Artemis in Ephesus. According to the Scriptures, the couple met a terrible death in the hands of the pagan worshippers, and they are remembered not only for their apostolic work, but also for their mutual spousal love; as described in Luke, the couple embodied the ideal Christian couple.