St. Susanna

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Read the essentials →
August 12 · Virgin, Martyr

St. Susanna

St. Susanna

Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Traditional feast

August 12
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

August 11
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Virgin
Martyr

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints · little is known

Susanna was nobly born in Rome and is said to have been a niece of Pope Caius. She had vowed her virginity to God and refused to marry. For this she was denounced as a Christian and suffered a cruel martyrdom about 295, early in Diocletian's (Roman emperor 284–305, who launched the last and fiercest persecution of Christians in 303) reign.

Butler states that no genuine acts of her life survive, but she is named in many ancient martyrologies. The church in Rome that bears her name had been one of the city's parish churches since the fifth century.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.

Keep their day. Remember them on August 12 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Ancient and Modem Roman Martyrologies. Ado, Usuardus, &c. Authorities: — Mention in the Martyrologies. The Acts are altogether apocryphal.] S. Susanna is said to have been niece to Pope S. Caius. She obtained the palm of martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian. Her head was struck off with a sword. 1 A lifelike picture of the times, and portraiture of Chromatius, Tiburtius, and the renegade Torquatus is to be found in Cardinal Wiseman's Fabiola. ■S’.S'. A nicetus and Photms.

Feast days

Feast: August 11
Traditional: August 12

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Susanna's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on August 12
A

Sts. Anicetus and Photius

August 12 · Martyr
St. Euplius

St. Euplius

August 12 · Deacon, Martyr
M

St. Muredach of Killala

August 12 · Bishop
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

Image: Saint Susanna statue - Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.JPG · José Luiz · CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

Image: José Luiz, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.