Santa Susanna - Saturday, Third Week of Lent
- Rick Bessey
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
Santa Susanna is a lovely church located very close to the Termini train station, just north of the Piazza della Repubblica. The church shares the Piazza of San Bernardo with Santa Maria della Vittoria, which contains Bernini's St. Teresa in Ecstacy, and the Moses Fountain, Restored by Pope Sixtus V in the late 1500s. The marvelous Late Renaissance-Early Baroque exterior boasts a beautiful facade made of local Travertine marble - the same local rock that is used in the facade of St. Peter's Basilica. The massive, Corinthian columns of the facade appear embedded in the wall. Or is it that the wall is pushing out around the columns? The Pope was so impressed with the work of Carlos Moderno, the architect, that he called upon him to complete the facade of St. Peter's. In the facade of Santa Susanna you have the early sketches, so to speak, of St. Peters.
The church is a refurbishment of a titulus church. Recall that a titulus church is one that used to be a home where the earliest Christians in Rome would meet. Santa Susanna was martyrd under Diocletian (emperor, 284-305). It is said that she was beheaded in the home which belonged to her father, Saint Gabinus, and that home, along with her uncle's next door, became known as Santa Susanna of the Two Homes.
The interior is said to be beautiful. Regrettably, the church is currently closed with no signs of reopening. The church was abandoned in 2017 and is desperately in need of repairs, especially to the roof. However, there is currently a dispute of responsibility, and at this time, there appears to be no interest from any party to perform any work and reopen the church.
Another curious element of the church is the length of the church. In visiting many churches in Rome, one gets a sense of proportion for churches. There is an expected feel that you expect, based on the perceived height and width of the space. Santa Susanna, for lack of more specific terms, just feels short. A look at Google Maps Street view from the exterior shows this.
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