SUSANNA, Saint, Martyr. - She is commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on 11 August, but her memory is not, as is customary, linked to a cemetery, but rather to a church within Rome, "ad duas domos iuxta Diocletianas (thermas)".

About the personality, however, and the martyrdom of St. Susanna nothing is known for certain. The Passio provides no reliable information since it was clearly written to legitimize her cult in the "titulus Gai". This title indeed, while it is mentioned in the Roman Synod of 499, in that of 595 appears already transformed, as in other cases, into that of St. Susanna. Daughter of the presbyter Gabinius, during the persecution of Diocletian, for having refused to marry the son of the Emperor she was arrested and beheaded in her own house. Pope Gaius, who lived next door, began her liturgical commemoration and declared the house of St. Susanna a stational title.

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Augusti, II, Paris 1867, pp. 624-32; L. Duchesne, Les légendes de l'Alta Semita, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 36 (1916), pp. 27-42; J. P. Kirsch, Die röm. Titelhirchen in Altertum, Paderborn 1918, pp. 70-74; F. Lanzoni, I titoli presbiterali di Roma antica, in Riv. di arch. christ., 2 (1925), pp. 228-34; P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, S. S. e il titulus Gai, in Note agiogr., VII (Studi e testi, 49), Rome 1928, pp. 185-202; Martyr. Heronymianum, p. 435; H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, Brussels 1933, p. 275 ff.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 333.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec11_susanna_santa_martire, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Susanna, santa, martire}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1592}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/susanna-santa-martire} }

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Susanna, Saint, Martyr

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