~by Susi Pittman

Have you ever researched your name? Have you ever researched your name among the Catholic saints?

I did this very thing this past week. Not because I was particularly interested to personally feel important because of some great deed my namesake may have done, but because I was in need of inspiration and spiritual food in week that I can only call a desert. What better way to be “inspired” than by the name your parents were “inspired” by God to give you.

Saint Susanna lived in what is now modern day Croatia. Her father Gabinus, came from a family of four brothers who were related to the Emperor Diocletian. Two of the brothers followed the religion of Rome, while Susanna’s father and his other brother Caius were Christians. Caius was elected Bishop of Rome in 283 AD, serving as Pope until his death in 296 AD. Susanna of course followed the Christian religion with her father.

Susanna having taken the vow of virginity, made a commitment to offer her life in service to Christ. This was to lead to her martyrdom.

Diocletian had a favored general that he wanted to succeed him and thus required Diocletian to have him marry into his family. Susanna was the only unmarried female left. She refused the marriage proposal, not wanting to marry a pagan and having pledged herself to Christian virginity. She was called before the Roman forum and asked to worship the God Jupiter. She refused. She was then asked if she was a Christian, to which she answered “yes.”

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich received a vision of the torment that Susanna endured at the hands of the Roman guard. She saw the Roman soldiers arrive at Susanna and Gabinus’ home where they tore off Susanna’s under garments and paraded her across the vestibule where she was pricked by the sword’s of the soldiers gathered there. She was then dragged into her own courtyard and beheaded.

A basilica was built over the site of Susanna’s home and it was Pope St. Gregory the Great that named the basilica in her honor. Her body and the body of her father Gabinus were buried in the church.

This story renewed my thanksgiving to God for the gift of religious freedom and peace and reminded me that being in a spiritual desert can bring us to a deeper appreciation for what we do have.

Thank you Susanna for your martyrdom! Your life reminds me of how expensive the price was for God’s Holy Church and Christianity to be such a part of my life today.

Susi Pittman is founder of CatholicStewardsofCreation.com and Owner-President of Twin Oaks Publishing; she is author of Animals in Heaven? Catholics Want to Know!; an advocate for the Florida Catholic Conference; a member of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Council of Women in Jacksonville, Florida; an Associate of the Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Augustine;a member of the Florida Publishers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association, the National Association of Professional Women, the ASPCA, the Humane Society of the United States and the National Audubon society.