From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 11th - Sts. Tiburtius and Susanna   
      
   Roman martyrs, feast 11 August. The story is related in the legend of St.   
   Sebastian that Chromatius, prefect of Rome, condemned several Christians to   
   death. The prefect, however, was converted by St. Tranquillinus and baptized   
   by Polycarp. Tiburtius, the only son of Chromatius, was also baptized   
   through the persuasion of St. Sebastian, who was his godfather in baptism.   
   Tiburtius during the persecution of Diocletian lay hidden in his father's   
   house. Accused by a traitor, he was brought before the prefect Fabianus and   
   tried. He confessed his faith which he confirmed by a miracle, for   
   protecting himself only by the sign of the cross he walked over red-hot   
   coals barefoot without suffering any injury. But the miracle was ascribed to   
   magic and Tiburtius was beheaded at the third mile-stone of the Via   
   Lavicana. This was in the year 286. The spot of execution was called, "at   
   the two laurel trees".   
      
   Saint Susanna, virgin and martyr, is said to have been the daughter of St.   
   Gabinius. She was beheaded about the year 295, at the command of Diocletian,   
   in her father's house. This house and the adjoining one belonging to her   
   uncle, the prefect Caius, which were near the two laurel trees, were turned   
   into a church, later the titular church of St. Susanna ad duas domos (cf.   
   Kehr, "Italia pontificia", I, 61 sq.). The authenticity of the Acts of Sts.   
   Sebastian and Susanna has been rightly questioned; however, the martyrdoms   
   and the day of death (11 August) are established by the witness of the   
   oldest Martyrologies and the earliest places   
      
      
      
   August 11th - St. Susanna   
      
   Saint Susanna was a Roman Virgin, who, on the 11th day of August in the year   
   290, was beheaded by order of her uncle the Emperor Diocletian.  She   
   incurred his displeasure by refusing to break her vow of chastity and marry   
   his adopted son, Maximilian Galerius.   
      
   This is the simple story of a Christian martyr of the third century.  It is   
   a story of love for Jesus Christ, repeated many times through the centuries,   
   a love so exalted and complete in its dedication that there was no place in   
   it for another.  In her consecrated life of virginity Saint Susanna had no   
   thought of marriage.  She would marry no one, not even the adopted son of   
   the Emperor.   
      
   If Diocletian knew that Susanna, a staunch believer in Jesus Christ, had   
   consecrated her virginity to Him by vow, he did not let it influence his   
   judgment.   It was his order that she marry Galerius.  She had led, many   
   faltering pagans to the doors of the Church and to the saving waters of   
   Baptism.  Now faced with the Emperor's command she had to make a choice of   
   life or death, not an unfamiliar one in those days.  To refuse the offer of   
   marriage might well mean death, but she who had been a source of courage and   
   constancy to others must not falter herself.  It was with fury and disbelief   
   that Diocletian heard Susanna had refused to marry his choice, or for that   
   matter anyone's choice.   
      
   The Empress Serena, herself a Christian, interceded for her during the next   
   several months, every effort was made to persuade Susanna to change her   
   mind.  After repeated failures, Diocletian gave the order which made of his   
   young cousin a martyr to the faith in the home of her father.  She died by   
   beheading.   
      
   On the night of her death, August 11th, 290, the Empress Serena visited the   
   home of our martyred Saint and reverently carried the body away.  At her   
   order the corpse was placed in a tomb next to that of Saint Alexander in the   
   catacombs of Saint Felicitas.  Early next morning Pope Saint Caius said a   
   Mass in her place of martyrdom, the present site of the Church of Santa   
   Susanna.   
      
   Historians say that the Emperor was neither for nor against the Christians   
   personally.  His adopted son and military aide, however, was violently   
   opposed to the new faith, nor did Diocletian stay his hand.  When Galerius   
   felt that the tenets of this new religion had denied him a most desirable   
   bride, his anger was boundless.  It may well be that the refusal of Saint   
   Susanna to marry the Emperor's choice was the single incident that touched   
   off the bloodiest persecution the Christians had thus far known.  It was to   
   claim many others of Susanna's immediate family including her father,   
   Gabinius, and her uncle, Pope Caius.   
      
   Through her death, and in the very place where her youthful blood spilled on   
   the earth, rises the church which today, and for many centuries, has borne   
   her name-the Church of Santa Susanna.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Who has lost and who has won in the struggle-the one who keeps the premises   
   [buildings] or the one who keeps the Faith?  The Faith obviously. That   
   therefore the ordinances which have been preserved in the churches from old   
   time until now may not be lost in our days,... rouse yourselves,   
   brethren,... seeing them now seized upon by aliens.   
   -St. Basil the Great  (ca. 330-ca. 379)   
      
   Bible Quote   
   19. Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if   
   you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,   
   Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be   
   impossible to you.  (Matthew 17:19)   
      
      
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   Prayer to Saint Susanna:   
      
   O singular example of virtue, glorious Saint Susanna, by the living faith   
   which animated thee from thy tenderest years, and rendered thee so pleasing   
   to God that thou didst merit the martyr's crown: obtain for us the grace to   
   keep our holy Faith inviolate within us, and to profess ourselves   
   Christians sincerely in word and work; may our open confession of Jesus   
   before men cause Him to bear a favorable witness to us before His eternal   
   lFather.   
   Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory be...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)