SUSANNA, SANTA, MARTIRE

Image from page 962
Image from page 962

SUSANNA, Saint, Martyr. — She is commemorated in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* 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).”

As for the personality and martyrdom of St Susanna, however, nothing certain is known. The *Passio* does not provide reliable information since it was clearly written to legitimize her cult in the “titulus Gai.” This title, in fact, while it is mentioned in the Roman Synod of 499, by that of 595 it already appears transformed, as in other cases, into that of St Susanna, daughter of the priest Gabinius, who during the persecution of Diocletian, for refusing to marry the son of the Emperor, was arrested and beheaded in her own house. Pope Caius, who lived nearby, began her liturgical commemoration and declared Susanna’s house a station church.

Bibl.: *Acta SS. Augusti*, II, Paris 1867, pp. 624-32; L. Duchesne, *Les légendes de l'Alta Senita*, in *Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist.*, 36 (1916), pp. 27-42; J. P. Kirsch, *Die röm. Titelkirchen 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. e il titulus Gai*, in *Note agiogr.*, VII (Studi e testi, 49), Rome 1928, pp. 185-202; *Martyr. Heronymianum*, p. 435; H. Delchaye, *Les origines du culte des martyrs*, Brussels 1933, p. 275 sq.; *Martyr. Romanum*, p. 333. Agostino Amore.