The patron saint of Siena, was of Roman origin, the son of Tranquillino, a noble patrician. When the Diocletian’s persecution broke out, Ansano and his godmother Massima, who had taken him to be baptised, were imprisoned. His godmother died as a result of beatings with a bar from the Roman officers, whilst Ansano managed to flee, heading north along the via Cassia, until he arrived at Siena. Here he preached the Gospel and baptised the first Christians, earning the title of “Baptiser of the Sienese”. This act of religious proselytism cost him the “test of fire and boiling oil” from which he emerged miraculously unscathed. However, the persecution continued and on the order of the proconsul he was captured and imprisoned in a tower which, due to tradition, was located in via San Quirico next to the little church named after his memory, Chiesa delle Carceri di Sant’Ansano. The long series of events that, after his capture, led him to martyrdom at Dofana, involved intense and painful sufferings which nonetheless never made him renounce his true faith. He was decapitated with a sword on the banks of the Arbia, outside the city.

Sources: avvenire.it