The Apologists · AD 130–180
Maximilla
d. c. 179 · Prophetess of the New Prophecy · Phrygia
The Apologists
Who Maximilla was
With Priscilla, one of the two women whose ecstatic oracles, beside Montanus’s, constituted the New Prophecy. Her recorded sayings are stark — “After me there will be no prophetess, but the end” — a claim that pinned the movement’s credibility to a near horizon that did not come. The anti-Montanist writer notes, pointedly, that her prophesied wars and upheavals failed to occur, and that thirteen years passed after her death without the promised end. Named by the church’s writers as the New Prophecy’s most authoritative voice after Montanus himself.
Also listed in women.
Common questions
When did Maximilla die?
Maximilla is dated d. c. 179 in the archive, which places Maximilla in the Apologists (AD 130–180). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Maximilla?
Maximilla is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Anti-Montanist writer and Epiphanius of Salamis. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Maximilla from?
The archive associates Maximilla with Phrygia.
Who were Maximilla’s contemporaries?
The archive links Maximilla to 5 other figures, including Montanus, Claudius Apollinaris of Hierapolis, Miltiades the Apologist and Priscilla the Montanist. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Anonymous, via Eusebius V.16
c. AD 193For she said, ‘After me there shall be no prophetess, but the consummation.’ …And yet more than thirteen years have passed since the woman’s death, and there has been in the world neither a partial nor a general war.Anti-Montanist writer · V.16 · source text
Panarion 48.2 (her last oracle quoted: 'after me there will be no prophetess')
c. AD 375After me there will no longer be a prophetess, but the consummation. (working translation)Epiphanius of Salamis · Panarion 48.2 · source text
Connected in the archive
People
- Montanus
- Claudius Apollinaris of Hierapolis
- Miltiades the Apologist
- Priscilla the Montanist
- Apollonius the Anti-Montanist
Events in this lifetime
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144
- AD 156 · The New Prophecy erupts, AD 156
- AD 177 · Persecution at Lyon and Vienne, AD 177
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Maximilla.
- 1Phrygiaprovince only