Santa Susanna

The Church of Saint Susanna at the Baths of Diocletian is a Roman Catholic parish church located on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, Italy. There has been a titular church associated to its site as far back as A.D. 280. The current church was rebuilt from 1585 to 1603 for a monastery of Cistercian nuns founded on the site in 1587 which still exists there.The church served as the national parish for residents of Rome from the United States from 1921 to 2017, during which period it was assigned to the care of the Paulist Fathers, a society of priests founded in the United States.Architectural historyRoman eraAbout 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 . According to the 6th-century acta of Susanna, the domus belonged to two brothers named Caius and Gabinus, prominent Christians. Caius has been identified both with Pope Saint Caius and with Caius the presbyter, who was a prefect and who is a source of information on early Christianity. 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 and previously the church was identified in the earliest, fourth-century documents by its title "of Gaius" by the Baths of Diocletian or as "ad duas domos" . It is mentioned in connection with a Roman synod of 499.