Priscilla the Montanist

When was Priscilla active?

Priscilla the Montanist is dated fl. c. AD 165–180 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Priscilla in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). 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 Priscilla?

Priscilla the Montanist is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Apollonius the Anti-Montanist, Tertullian of Carthage and Epiphanius of Salamis. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Priscilla from?

The archive associates Priscilla the Montanist with Pepuza, Phrygia. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Who were Priscilla’s contemporaries?

The archive links Priscilla the Montanist to 4 other figures, including Montanus, Maximilla, Miltiades the Apologist and Apollonius the Anti-Montanist. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.

[Tertullian quotes an oracle of the prophetess Prisca on the continence that receives visions — among the few of her sayings to survive in any language.]

Tertullian's De Exhortatione Castitatis, written c. AD 208, which preserves at chapter 10 an oracle of the Montanist prophetess Prisca. Critical text: Dekkers, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 2 (1954); Claudio Moreschini and Jean-Claude Fredouille, Sources Chrétiennes 319 (1985). English translation by S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885), public domain.

They boast of Montanus and glory in Priscilla and Maximilla as prophetesses, saying that in them the Paraclete spoke — a fullness beyond the apostles.