Susanna is an Old Testament figure honored in the Orthodox Church as a model of chastity and steadfastness under false accusation. Her account is preserved in the Septuagint Greek text of the Book of Daniel, where it stands as a preamble to the book; the Latin Vulgate places it at the end, where it forms the book's thirteenth chapter. The narrative does not appear in the Hebrew Tanakh, and on this account Protestant traditions reckon it among the additions to Daniel, but it is received as Scripture in the Orthodox and Catholic canons.
According to the narrative, Susanna was a God-fearing woman married to a respected man named Joakim, living among the Jewish community in Babylon during the period of the captivity. Two elders who had been appointed as judges conceived a lust for her and, hiding in her garden as she bathed, demanded that she submit to them. When she refused, they publicly testified that they had caught her in adultery with a young man. Because the accusers were men of standing, their word was believed and Susanna was condemned to death.
As she was being led to execution, the youth Daniel intervened, declaring that the elders had borne false witness, and called for the two to be questioned separately. When each was asked under what tree the alleged act had taken place, their answers contradicted one another, exposing the falsehood of their testimony. Susanna was vindicated and the false accusers were put to death. She is commemorated in mid-December (December 14 in the Cloud of Witnesses calendar; the OCA listing gives December 15).
