Church Honors Memory of Holy Apostle Aquila and Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite.

On July 14, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Apostle Aquila. His name comes from the Latin word aquila, meaning eagle. He was a Jew from the region of Pontus, in what is now northern Turkey.

Together with his wife, Priscilla, Aquila earned a living by making tents for the military and other purposes. In the middle of the first century, after Emperor Claudius ordered the Jews to leave Rome, the family settled in Corinth, the capital of the Roman province of Achaia.

During his second missionary journey, Apostle Paul arrived in Corinth after visiting Athens. Since he practiced the same trade, he worked alongside Aquila and Priscilla while preaching the Gospel for a year and a half.

Paul introduced Aquila and Priscilla to the teachings of Jesus Christ, baptized them, and they became devoted Christians. Later, when he sailed through Ephesus on his way to Jerusalem, he left them there to strengthen the local Christian community he had founded two years earlier.

In Ephesus, Aquila and Priscilla helped the learned Alexandrian Apollos gain a fuller understanding of the Christian faith. Until then, he had known only the baptism of repentance preached by John the Baptist and had not yet been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity.

After the death of Emperor Claudius, Aquila and Priscilla returned to Rome, where they continued spreading the Christian faith.