Santa Susanna

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Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna (Italian - Chiesa di Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano) is a church on the Quirinal in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, with a titulus

Titulus

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Santa Susanna (Italian - Chiesa di Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano) is a church on the Quirinal in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, with a titulus

Titulus

In Christian archeology, a titulus is one of a set number of churches of Rome#Ancient churches built round the edges of the city of Rome, which were ascribed to patrons, whose names often identified them:...
at its site that dates back to about 280. The modern church, rebuilt in 1585–1603, is the English–speaking Roman parish which ministers to American Catholics living in or visiting Rome. Since 1958, the Archbishop of Boston has held the post of Cardinal Priest of Santa Susanna. However Bernard Francis Law, who resigned his post as archbishop in 2002, has retained this position. The Paulist Fathers

Paulist Fathers

The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, better known as the Paulist Fathers, is a Roman Catholic religious society for men founded in New York City in 1858 by Fr....
have served Santa Susanna since the 1920s.

History

About 280, an early Christian house of worship was established on this site, which, like many of the earliest Christian meeting places, was in a house (domus ecclesiae). The domus
Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
belonged, according to the sixth-century acta
Acta

Acta may refer to:* Acta , early outliner software* Manny Acta, current manager of the Washington Nationals in Major League Baseball* ActA Protein, a protein used by the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes to propel itself through a host cell...
, to brothers named Caius and Gabinus, prominent Christians. Caius has been identified with Pope Saint Caius and with Caius

Caius (presbyter)

Caius, Presbyter of Rome was a Christian author who lived and wrote towards the beginning of the 3rd century. Only fragments of his works are known, which are given in the collection entitled The Ante-Nicene Fathers. However, the Muratorian fragment, an early attempt to establish the Biblical canon of the New Testament, is often attribut...
was a prefect who is the source of information on early Christianity. Gabinus or Gabinius is the name given to the father of the semi-legendary Saint Susanna. According to the acta, his brother Gabinus had a daughter, Susanna. Her earliest documented attestations identify her as the patron of the church, not as a martyr and previously the church was identified in the earliest, fourth-century documents by its titulus

Titulus

Baths of Diocletian

The Baths of Diocletian in Ancient Rome were the grandest of the public baths, or thermae built by successive emperors. Diocletian's Baths, dedicated in 306, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths and remained in use until the aqueducts that fed them were cut by the Goths in 537....
or as "ad duas domos" ("near the two houses") It is mentioned in connection with a Roman synod of 499.

Traditionally, the structure officially became a church around 330, under Constantine I

Constantine I

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus , commonly known in English_language as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 until his death in 337....
, when the basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a ancient Rome public building , usually located in the Forum of a Roman town. In Hellenistic cities, public basilicas appeared in the 2nd century BC....
s of numerous house churches came to be adapted for liturgical use. The basilica was T-shaped with a central nave with twelve columns on each side, flanked by side aisles. All that are left of these two side aisles, after the late 16th century rebuilding, are the two side chapels of the basilica church.

From the synod of 565, the church appears under the titulus of Susanna

Saints Tiburtius and Susanna

Saints Tiburtius and Susanna were two ancient Rome Catholic martyrs, the feast day of each of whom is 11 August. The saints were not related, but are simply venerated on the same day....
; the veneration of Susanna has been localized on this site without a break ever since. In the contemporary acta, Susanna is martyred with her family when the girl refuses to marry the son of emperor Diocletian

Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
; the occasion of Susanna's martyrdom is a literary trope

Trope (literature)

A literary trope is a common pattern, theme , motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning....
that is familiar in other passions of virgins in the Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology

The Roman Martyrology is the official Martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church....
in Lviv

Lviv

Lviv is a major city in western Ukraine.It is regarded as one of the main Ukrainian culture. In 2001, it had 725,000 inhabitants, of whom 88 per cent were Ukrainians, 9 per cent Russians and 1 per cent Poles....
, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
.]]

Pope Sergius I restored it at the end of the 7th century, but Pope Leo III

Pope Leo III

Pope Saint Leo III was Pope from 795 to 816. Protected by Charlemagne from his enemies in Rome, he subsequently strengthened Charlemagne's position by crowning him as Roman Emperor....
, the fourth pope who had been pastor of this church, rebuilt it from the ground in 796, adding the great apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
and conserving the relics of the saints in the crypt. A vast mosaic of Christ flanked by Leo and the Emperor Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was List of Frankish kings from 768 to his death. He expanded the Franks kingdoms into a Carolingian Empire that incorporated much of Western Europe and Central Europe....
and Saints Susanna and Felicity

Felicitas of Rome

Saint Felicitas of Rome is a Christian Christian martyrs Saint. Apart from her name, the only thing known for certain about this martyr is that she was buried in the Cemetery of Maximus, on the Via Salaria on a November 23....
on the other was so badly damaged in the 12th century by an earthquake, that the interior was plastered over in the complete renovation that spanned the years 1585–1602 and frescoed by Cesare Nebbia

Cesare Nebbia

Cesare Nebbia is an Italy painter from Orvieto who painted in a Mannerism style....
(1536–1614).

A façade remained to be constructed. The present church of Santa Susanna on its ancient foundations was the first independent commission in Rome for Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was an Italy-Switzerland architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His fa?ades of Santa Susanna, St....
, who had trained as an assistant to his uncle Domenico Fontana

Domenico Fontana

Domenico Fontana was a Switzerland-born Italy architect of the late Renaissance.He was born at Melide, Switzerland on the Lake Lugano and died at Naples....
, the chief architect of Pope Sixtus V. In 1603, Maderno completed the façade, a highly influential early Baroque design. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, crowding centrally, and the protrusion and increased central decoration add further complexity to the structure. Notice the interplay of relationships, none exactly symmetric on any one mirror side. The entrance and roof are surrounded by triangular pediments. The windows replaced by niches. There is an incipient playfullness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor.

Santa Susanna was accounted so successful that in 1605 Pope Paul V

Pope Paul V

Pope Paul V , born Camillo Borghese, was Pope from May 16, 1605 until his death....
named Maderno architect of Saint Peter’s Basilica, where he completed the nave and constructed the great facade.

Religious associations

* Entombed in the church are five early church martyrs and Saints: Susanna, her father Gabinus, Felicity of Rome, Pope Eleuterus

Pope Eleuterus

Pope Saint Eleuterus or Eleutherius, was pope from about 174 to 189 . He was born in Nicopolis in Epirus . His name is Greek language for free....
, and Genesius of Rome

Genesius of Rome

Saint Genesius of Rome was an actor hired for a play that made fun of Christian baptism. During a performance in Rome before the emperor Diocletian, Genesius had a change of heart and converted....
.

The commemoration of Saint Susanna has long been linked in the Toman calendar with Saint Tiburtius, 11 August (See Saints Tiburtius and Susanna
Saints Tiburtius and Susanna

Saints Tiburtius and Susanna were two ancient Rome Catholic martyrs, the feast day of each of whom is 11 August. The saints were not related, but are simply venerated on the same day....
).
Among the previous Cardinal Priests of Santa Susanna was Pope Nicholas V
Pope Nicholas V

Pope Nicholas V , born Tommaso Parentucelli, was Pope from March 6, 1447 to his death in 1455....
(1446).

Santa Susanna

History

Religious associations

External links