- 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 
Rome, ItalyGeographic coordinates 41°54′15.3″N 12°29′37.1″E / 41.90425°N 12.493639°ECoordinates: 41°54′15.3″N 12°29′37.1″E / 41.90425°N 12.493639°E 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) For other uses, see Santa Susanna (disambiguation).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 1585–1603.
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 English–speaking 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]
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 1585–1602 and frescoed by Cesare Nebbia (1536–1614).
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.
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 1411 – 3 July 1431)
- Hugo d'Estaing (1431-1446)
- Tommaso Parentucelli di Sanzana (1446-1447)
- Fillipo Calandrini (1448-1451)
- Alessandro Oliva di Sassoferrato (19 March 1460 – 20 August 1463)
- Jean Baleu (13 May 1468 – 31 January 1483)
- Lorenzo Cibo de’ Mari (23 March 1489 – 14 March 1491)
- Juan de Borja Lanzol de Romaní, el mayor (31 August 1492 – 1 August 1503)
- Francesco Soderini (12 June 1503 – 15 September 1508)
- Leonardo Grosso della Rovere (15 September 1508 – 9 March 1517)
- Raffaele Petrucci (26 December 1517 – 11 December 1522)
- Antonio Sanseverino (27 April 1528 – 16 May 1530)
- Juan García de Loaysa y Mendoza (16 May 1530 – 22 April 1546)
- Georges II d’Amboise (7 September 1546 – 28 February 1550)
- Jacques d'Annebaut (22 March 1548 – 6 June 1557)
- Girolamo Seripando (10 March 1561 – 17 March 1563)
- Francisco Pacheco de Toledo (14 July 1564 – 7 February 1565)
- Bernardo Navagero (6 February 1565 – 13 April 1565)
- Francesco Alciati (3 June 1565 – 13 May 1569)
- Girolamo Rusticucci (9 June 1570 – 18 August 1597)
- Anne de Pérusse Escars de Gi (14 June 1604 – 19 April 1612)
- Gaspar Borja y Velasco (10 December 1612 – 17 October 1616)
- Scipione Cobelluzzi (17 October 1616 – 29 June 1626)
- Giulio Cesare Sacchetti (2 December 1626 – 29 April 1652)
- Giovanni Battista Spada (23 March 1654 – 27 January 1659)
- Francesco Pallavincio Sforza (1659-1660)
- Carlo Carafa della Spina (13 April 1665 – 27 May 1675)
- Bernhard Gustave von Baden-Durlach (19 October 1676 – 26 December 1677)
- Marc Antonio Barbarigo (30 September 1686 – 1 July 1697)
- Daniello Marco Delfino (30 March 1700 – 5 August 1704)
- Lorenzo Corsini (Pope Clement XII) (25 June 1706 – 16 December 1720)
- José Pereira de Lacerda (16 June 1721 – 28 September 1738)
- Raniero Felice Simonetti (15 May 1747 – 20 August 1749)
- Luca Melchiore Tempi (24 May 1756 – 23 May 1757)
- Ludovico Valenti (19 November 1759 – 20 December 1762)
- Carlo Crivelli (24 May 1802 – 19 January 1818)
- Giuseppe Della Porta Rodiani (24 July 1835 – 18 December 1841)
- Ignazio Cadolini (30 January 1843 – 11 April 1850)
- Alessandro Barnabò (19 June 1856 – 24 February 1874)
- Bartolomeo D’Avanzo (7 April 1876 – 20 October 1884)
- Francis Patrick Moran (30 July 1885 – 16 August 1911)
- François-Virgile Dubillard (30 November 1911 – 1 December 1914)
- Giorgio Gusmini (9 December 1915 – 24 August 1921)
- Giovanni Bonzano (18 December 1924 – 26 November 1927)
- Alexis Lépicier (22 December 1927 – 20 May 1936)
- Arthur Hinsley (16 December 1937 – 17 March 1943)
- Edward Mooney (22 February 1946 – 25 October 1958)
- Richard Cushing (18 December 1958 – 2 November 1970)
- Humberto Sousa Medeiros (5 March 1973 – 17 September 1983)
- Bernard Francis Law (25 May 1985 – present)
Notes
- ^ http://www.santasusanna.org/ourUniqueHistory/parishHistory.html
- ^ His successor Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley was created Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria della Vittoria.
- ^
Healy, Patrick J. (1913). "Caius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. - ^ Meier, Gabriel (1913). "Sts._Tiburtius_and_Susanna". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Manfred Clauss, "Susanna" in Biographisch-Bibliographische Kirchenlexikon.
- ^ Compare the Acta of Saint Lucy or Saint Agnes.
- ^ 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).
- ^ http://www.gcatholic.com/churches/cardinal/288.htm
- ^ http://www.santasusanna.org/ourUniqueHistory/cardinals.html
- ^ The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
See also
References
- Meier, Gabriel (1913). "Sts._Tiburtius_and_Susanna". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- Official website of the Church of Saint Susanna
- Manfred Clauss, "Susanna" in Biographisch-Bibliographische Kirchenlexikon Full bibliography.
- http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susanna_(titolo_cardinalizio)
External links
Categories:- Buildings and structures completed in 1603
- Titular churches in Rome
- National churches in Rome
- Roman Baroque
- 4th-century church buildings
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
