St. Serena of Rome

Who was St. Serena of Rome?

St. Serena of Rome is the saint the Roman Martyrology remembers on August 16 in a single line: "At Rome, St. Serena, who had been the wife of the emperor Diocletian." Everything else we are told about her comes from a legend, the Acts of St. Susanna, the Roman virgin martyr whose church still stands beside the ruins of Diocletian's baths. In that story Serena is a Christian empress married to the great persecutor, who keeps her faith in secret and stands by a young woman condemned for hers.

Let us be honest about what we know. The Bollandists, the Jesuit scholars who spent centuries sifting the lives of the saints, concluded that the story of the empress Serena does not hold up as history. Yet the Church has kept her name in the martyrology for more than a thousand years, and her story is worth telling as the Church has told it.

The legend of St. Serena

The empress and the virgin

The Acts of St. Susanna, a legendary passio that the New Catholic Encyclopedia dates to the sixth century, make Susanna the daughter of the priest Gabinius and niece of Pope Caius, and a relative of Diocletian. The emperor wanted her to marry Maximian, whom the legend calls his son. She refused, because she had vowed her virginity to Christ.

Cardinal Baronius, summarizing the Acts in his Annals, tells what followed, and the Bollandists quote him in the Acta Sanctorum. Diocletian sent Susanna to his wife Serena, hoping she would talk the girl out of her new religion. But Serena "herself secretly practiced" that religion. Far from moving Susanna, she strengthened her in her confession and urged her to act bravely and firmly. She kept Susanna with her for many days, and the two prayed together day and night as Christians do.

When the emperor learned that Susanna would not give up her faith or accept the marriage, he sent her back to her father's house. Soon after, on his orders, she was put to death there by the sword.

The burial of Susanna

The Acts then return to Serena. When she heard that Susanna had completed her martyrdom, she came at night to the house, rejoicing. She cared for the body with her own hands, wrapped it in linen, embalmed it with spices, and buried it in a catacomb near the grave of St. Alexander, on August 11. The veil with which she had wiped Susanna's blood she kept in a silver case, and she prayed before it in secret day and night.

Pope Caius, the Acts say, offered Mass in Susanna's house from then on, and the house became a church. That church is Santa Susanna, near the Baths of Diocletian.

What history says

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the authenticity of the Acts of Sts. Sebastian and Susanna "has been rightly questioned," though Susanna's martyrdom and her day, August 11, rest on the oldest martyrologies.

Serena fares worse. Lactantius, who lived through the persecution, writes that Diocletian began his campaign by forcing "his daughter Valeria and his wife Prisca" to offer pagan sacrifice. Years later, after the persecutors had fallen, Prisca and Valeria wandered in disguise, were found at Thessalonica, and were beheaded. The Bollandists, commenting on the Acts of Susanna in 1751, reasoned that if Prisca was Valeria's mother, she must have married Diocletian before he became emperor and was still alive long after the events of the legend. They add that Baronius himself had noticed that no pagan writer and no ancient inscription ever mentions an empress Serena.

Miracles

No miracles are told of Serena herself. Her place in the traditional story is the quiet one: courage in secret, a burial given at risk, and prayer before a relic of a martyr.

Symbols of St. Serena in art

She is rarely painted on her own. When she appears, it is as an empress:

• A crown or diadem: her imperial rank in the legend.
• A veil or linen cloth: the veil stained with Susanna's blood that she kept, and the linen she used to bury her.

She is more often a figure in the story of St. Susanna, whose statue by François Duquesnoy holds the palm of martyrdom.

Feast day

The Roman Martyrology keeps her memory on August 16, five days after St. Susanna. See our feast days page for other saints of August.

Prayer to St. Serena

No traditional prayer to St. Serena has come down to us. We can honor her the way the legend says she honored Susanna, with quiet prayer and loyal friendship to those who suffer for Christ. Let us pray for Christians who must keep their faith hidden, in their homes or in their countries, and ask St. Susanna and all the holy martyrs of Rome to pray for us.