Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna
Church of Saint Susanna at the Baths of Diocletian
Chiesa di Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano (Italian)

Baroque façade of Santa Susanna by Carlo Maderno (1603).

Basic information
Location Italy Rome, Italy
Geographic coordinates 41°5415.3N 12°2937.1E / 41.90425°N 12.493639°E / 41.90425; 12.493639Coordinates: 41°5415.3N 12°2937.1E / 41.90425°N 12.493639°E / 41.90425; 12.493639
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Year consecrated 330
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Titulus, Rectory Church, National church of the United States of America
Leadership Bernard Francis Law
Website www.santasusanna.org
Architectural description
Architect(s) Carlo Maderno
Architectural type Church
Architectural style Baroque
Direction of façade SE
Groundbreaking 4th century
Completed 1603
Specifications
Length 45 metres (148 ft)
Width 17 metres (56 ft)

The Church of Saint Susanna at the baths of Diocletian (Italian: Chiesa di Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano) is a Roman Catholic parish church on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, with a titulus associated to its site that dates back to about 280. The modern church dedicated to Saint Susanna was rebuilt in 15851603.

In 1921, Pope Benedict XV authorized the Paulist Fathers to use Santa Susanna to create the national church in Rome of the United States of America[1]. The first public Mass for the American community was celebrated by Cardinal William Henry O'Connell on February 26, 1922 and until today, the Englishspeaking Roman parish ministers to American Catholics living in or visiting Rome.

From 1958 to 1985, the post of Cardinal Priest of the titulus Sancta Susannae was given to the Archbishop of Boston on his creation as cardinal. The most recent such appointment was that of Bernard Francis Law, who in 2002 resigned the archbishopric but kept the titulus of Santa Susanna[2]. The Paulist Fathers have served Santa Susanna since the 1920s.

Contents

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). According to the sixth-century acta of Susanna, the domus belonged to brothers named Caius and Gabinus, prominent Christians. Caius has been identified both with Pope Saint Caius and with Caius, who was a prefect who is a source of information on early Christianity.[3][4] Gabinus or Gabinius is the name given to the father of the semi-legendary Saint Susanna. Her earliest documented attestations identify her as the patron of the church, not as a martyr[5] and previously the church was identified in the earliest, fourth-century documents by its titulus "of Gaius" by the Baths of Diocletian 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, when the basilicas 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; the veneration of Susanna has been localized on this site without a break ever since. In the acta, Susanna is martyred with her family when the girl refuses to marry the son of emperor Diocletian; the occasion of Susanna's martyrdom is a literary trope that is familiar in other passions of virgins in the Roman Martyrology [6]

Fresco detail in Santa Susanna depicting the martyrdom of St. Felicity, by Paris Nogari.[7]

Architectural history

Pope Sergius I restored it at the end of the 7th century, but Pope Leo III, the fourth pope who had been pastor of this church, rebuilt it from the ground in 796, adding the great apse and conserving the relics of the saints in the crypt. A vast mosaic of Christ flanked by Leo and the Emperor Charlemagne and Saints Susanna and Felicity 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 15851602 and frescoed by Cesare Nebbia (15361614).

A façade, in travertine, remained to be constructed. The present church of Santa Susanna on its ancient foundations was the first independent commission in Rome for Carlo Maderno, who had trained as an assistant to his uncle Domenico Fontana, 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 playfulness with the rules of classic design, still maintaining rigor. The statues of the higher level (Pope Saint Caius and Saint Genesius of Rome) are by Giovanni Antonio Paracea, those of the lower level (Saint Susanna and Saint Felicitas of Rome) are by Stefano Maderno.

The church of Saint Susanna was accounted so successful that in 1605 Pope Paul V named Maderno architect of Saint Peter's Basilica, where he completed the nave and constructed the great façade.

Interior

The interior.

The church consists of a single nave, with a circular apse forming two side-chapels. The frescoes of the central nave by Baldassare Croce represent six scenes from the life of Susanna found in the Book of Daniel. The frescoes on the curved side of the apse shows Saint Susanna being threatened by Maximian, but defended by the angel of God and to the right, Susanna refusing to worship the idol Jupiter. Nebbia's frescoes of the dome of the apse depict Santa Susanna flanked on either side by angels with musical instruments. Behind the high altar, the painting depicting the beheading of Santa Susanna is by Tommaso Laureti.

Chapel of our Lady of Graces

The chapel of our Lady of Graces (a former painting on the altar) has on its walls two recent frescoes of Saint Benedict and Saint Bernard.

Chapel of Saint Lawrence

Domenico Fontana constructed the second side-chapel to the left dedicated to Saint Lawrence, commissioned by Camilla Peretti, sister of Pope Sixtus V. The paintings are by the Milanese artist Giovanni Battista Pozzo (1563-1591). The altar painting by Cesare Nebbia depicts the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. In this chapel are venerated Saint Genesius of Rome, patron of actors, in the act of receiving baptism, and the bishop Pope Saint Eleuterus.

Presbytery

The presbytery is decorated with two frescoes. To the left, Baldassare Croce depicts the martyrdom of Saint Gabinius, while to the right, Paris Nogari shows the martyrdom of Saint Felicitas of Rome and her seven sons.

Ceiling

The valuable ceiling of the nave and of the presbytery is made in polychromed gilt wood, carved to the design of Carlo Maderno.

A 17th-century replica of Santa Susanna in Lviv, Ukraine.

Religious associations

  • Entombed in the church are five early church martyrs and Saints: Susanna, her father Gabinus, Saint Felicitas of Rome, Pope Saint Eleuterus, and Genesius of Rome.
  • The commemoration of Saint Susanna has long been linked in the Roman calendar with Saint Tiburtius, 11 August (See Saints Tiburtius and Susanna).
  • Among the previous Cardinal Priests of Santa Susanna was Pope Nicholas V (1446).

Cardinal Priests of Santa Susanna since 494

List of the cardinal titulars of the church [8][9][10]

  • Asello (494-?)
  • Rusticus (590-?)
  • Conone (Pope Conon) (683?-686)
  • Sergius (Pope Sergius I) (683?-687)
  • Johanes (745-before 761)
  • Leontius (761-before 796)
  • Leo (Pope Leo III) (795)
  • Johannes (964-before 1012)
  • Johannes (before 1012-before 1033)
  • Johannes (1033-before 1062)
  • Petrus (1062-before 1099)
  • Pietro Gheradesca di Donoratico (1099-1106)
  • Gezo (1106-ca. 1112)
  • Pietro Gherardeschi (1117-1130); pseudocardinal of Antipope Anacletus II
  • Stanzio (1130-1133)
  • Giordano Bobone Orsini (1145-1165)
  • Ermanno, called il Maestro (1165 or 1166-ca. 1170)
  • Lesbio Grassi (1170-1173)
  • Pietro de Bono (1173-1187)
  • Alessio (1188-1189)
  • Giovani Felice (1190-1194)
  • Benedetto Caetani(1201-1212)
  • Aldobrandino Gaetani (or Ildebrando) (1219-1221)
  • Geoffroy Barbeau (or de Barro) (1281-1287)
  • Benedetto Caetani (1288-1294)
  • Pierre d'Arrablay (or Arabloy) (1316-1328)
  • Andrea Ghini Malpighi (or Malpigli) (1342-1343)
  • Pierre Bertrand (or du Colombier) (1344-1361)
  • Filippo Ruffini (or Gezza) (1378-1386)
  • Francesco Carbone Tomacelli (1384-1392)
  • Pierre de Thury (1385-1410)
  • Antonio II Panciera (6 June 14113 July 1431)
  • Hugo d'Estaing (1431-1446)
  • Tommaso Parentucelli di Sanzana (1446-1447)
  • Fillipo Calandrini (1448-1451)
  • Alessandro Oliva di Sassoferrato (19 March 146020 August 1463)
  • Jean Baleu (13 May 146831 January 1483)
  • Lorenzo Cibo deMari (23 March 148914 March 1491)
  • Juan de Borja Lanzol de Romaní, el mayor (31 August 14921 August 1503)
  • Francesco Soderini (12 June 150315 September 1508)
  • Leonardo Grosso della Rovere (15 September 15089 March 1517)
  • Raffaele Petrucci (26 December 151711 December 1522)
  • Antonio Sanseverino (27 April 152816 May 1530)
  • Juan García de Loaysa y Mendoza (16 May 153022 April 1546)
  • Georges II dAmboise (7 September 154628 February 1550)
  • Jacques d'Annebaut (22 March 15486 June 1557)
  • Girolamo Seripando (10 March 156117 March 1563)
  • Francisco Pacheco de Toledo (14 July 15647 February 1565)
  • Bernardo Navagero (6 February 156513 April 1565)
  • Francesco Alciati (3 June 156513 May 1569)
  • Girolamo Rusticucci (9 June 157018 August 1597)
  • Anne de Pérusse Escars de Gi (14 June 160419 April 1612)
  • Gaspar Borja y Velasco (10 December 161217 October 1616)
  • Scipione Cobelluzzi (17 October 161629 June 1626)
  • Giulio Cesare Sacchetti (2 December 162629 April 1652)
  • Giovanni Battista Spada (23 March 165427 January 1659)
  • Francesco Pallavincio Sforza (1659-1660)
  • Carlo Carafa della Spina (13 April 166527 May 1675)
  • Bernhard Gustave von Baden-Durlach (19 October 167626 December 1677)
  • Marc Antonio Barbarigo (30 September 16861 July 1697)
  • Daniello Marco Delfino (30 March 17005 August 1704)
  • Lorenzo Corsini (Pope Clement XII) (25 June 170616 December 1720)
  • José Pereira de Lacerda (16 June 172128 September 1738)
  • Raniero Felice Simonetti (15 May 174720 August 1749)
  • Luca Melchiore Tempi (24 May 175623 May 1757)
  • Ludovico Valenti (19 November 175920 December 1762)
  • Carlo Crivelli (24 May 180219 January 1818)
  • Giuseppe Della Porta Rodiani (24 July 183518 December 1841)
  • Ignazio Cadolini (30 January 184311 April 1850)
  • Alessandro Barnabò (19 June 185624 February 1874)
  • Bartolomeo DAvanzo (7 April 187620 October 1884)
  • Francis Patrick Moran (30 July 188516 August 1911)
  • François-Virgile Dubillard (30 November 19111 December 1914)
  • Giorgio Gusmini (9 December 191524 August 1921)
  • Giovanni Bonzano (18 December 192426 November 1927)
  • Alexis Lépicier (22 December 192720 May 1936)
  • Arthur Hinsley (16 December 193717 March 1943)
  • Edward Mooney (22 February 194625 October 1958)
  • Richard Cushing (18 December 19582 November 1970)
  • Humberto Sousa Medeiros (5 March 197317 September 1983)
  • Bernard Francis Law (25 May 1985present)

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.santasusanna.org/ourUniqueHistory/parishHistory.html
  2. ^ His successor Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Vittoria.
  3. ^  Healy, Patrick J. (1913). "Caius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  4. ^  Meier, Gabriel (1913). "Sts._Tiburtius_and_Susanna". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
  5. ^ Manfred Clauss, "Susanna" in Biographisch-Bibliographische Kirchenlexikon.
  6. ^ Compare the Acta of Saint Lucy or Saint Agnes.
  7. ^ Paris Nogari (c. 1536-1601) was a minor pupil of Cesare Nebbia (Sidney J. Freedberg, Painting in Italy, 1500-1600, 3rd ed. 1993, p. 656).
  8. ^ http://www.gcatholic.com/churches/cardinal/288.htm
  9. ^ http://www.santasusanna.org/ourUniqueHistory/cardinals.html
  10. ^ The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

See also

References

External links


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