Feast day: January 20
St. Sebastian
A Roman soldier and secret Christian who encouraged the persecuted in prison, was shot with arrows for his faith, survived, confronted the emperor, and was finally killed.
What little can be established of Sebastian's life comes through early tradition rather than contemporary record. He is said to have been born at Narbonne in Gaul and raised at Milan, and to have entered the Roman army around the year 283. By tradition he rose to a position in the Praetorian Guard, the emperor's own household troops — a place of trust that he is said to have used quietly to strengthen Christians awaiting execution and to bury the dead, all while concealing his own faith.
The famous story of his martyrdom belongs to the 'Acts' compiled in later centuries and long beloved in Christian art. When his faith was at last denounced to the Emperor Diocletian, Sebastian was condemned, bound to a stake, and shot through with arrows by a company of archers, who left him for dead. A widow named Irene, coming to bury him, is said to have found him still alive and nursed him back to health.
Rather than flee, the recovered Sebastian is said to have placed himself where the emperor would pass and openly rebuked him for his cruelty to the Christians. Astonished to see the man he believed executed, Diocletian ordered him seized a second time and beaten to death with clubs, his body thrown into a sewer. Christians recovered it and buried him in the catacombs on the Appian Way that still bear his name.
Because he was thought to have survived the arrows, Sebastian was invoked across medieval Europe against the plague, which struck as suddenly and invisibly as a flight of arrows; whole cities took him as protector during outbreaks. The arrow-pierced young soldier became one of the most painted figures in Western art, and he remains a patron of soldiers, athletes, and archers.
The famous arrows didn't kill him — he recovered, walked up to the emperor to rebuke him, and only then was martyred.
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