Santa Susanna

While you may not want Susanna to cry for you, you still can visit her church near the Baths of Diocletian.  Beautiful and well educated, Susanna was considered by the emperor Diocletian an ideal match for his heir Maximian.  Considering herself already taken as a bride of Christ, she turned down the offer, which also cut short her stay in Rome as Diocletian beheaded her in her home.  He had sent her two uncles to convince her, and with her converting them to Christianity instead, Diocletian burned the two alive.

Today the North American Parish in Rome, you can spot the flag to the lower left.

You may have heard of Saint Peter’s across town.  Its facade was designed by Maderna--five years before he did that other church, Maderna created the facade of Saint Susanna’s in 1603.  A remarkable example of Baroque architecture, here you can see it next door to the church of Our Lady of Victory, which hold’s Bernini’s Saint Teresa in Ecstacy.

The walk home took me past one of the finest churches of a not-fan of Bernini, his rival Borromini.  This beautiful church of San Carlino is on the corner of the Quattro Fontane, four fountains at each corner of the intersection, one of which you can see below.

And in the morning sunlight, here’s another, depicting the goddess Juno.