Ansanus of Siena

Saint Ansanus the Martyr is the patron of the city of Siena in Italy, called the Baptizer or the Apostle of Siena. He is said to have belonged to the Roman Anician family and to have received the crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian, on 1 December 304.

Childhood and confession

According to tradition he was born at Rome in 284 into a noble family. While still a child he was secretly baptized by his nurse Maxima, also venerated as a saint, and was brought up in the faith of Christ. At nineteen, in the persecution of Diocletian, he declared his faith openly. It is also said that his own father denounced him to the authorities, but Ansanus managed to escape and preached the Gospel at Bagnorea and later at Siena.

Sufferings

Of the little known about him, only this is certain: that he was a Roman of a wealthy family, the Anicii. The rest comes from oral tradition not confirmed by written sources. According to it, Ansanus and Maxima were scourged, and Maxima died of it. Ansanus survived this ordeal and the next, being thrown into a pot of boiling oil. He was then taken as a prisoner to Siena and imprisoned, but even there he preached and brought many to Christ. By order of the emperor Diocletian he was beheaded, not far from Siena.

The story says that the church of Santa Maria delle Carceri near the Alban Gate was built over the prison in which he had been confined.

Veneration

He is honoured as one of the patron saints of Siena, which according to tradition he brought to Christianity in the days when it was a Roman colony, Saena Iulia. He is shown in Duccio's Maestà in the cathedral of Siena, and in paintings where he baptizes the Sienese. His feast is on 1 December.