Saints of the Day – Sebastian (original) (raw)

Born in Narbonne, Gaul (France); died in Rome, 288-300; feast day in the East is December 18.

No matter what our occupation in life, God can use us for His purpose if we will simply pray for the eyes to see the opportunities before us. Sebastian, a Roman soldier, had such a faith. He had joined the army in 283 in order to help his fellow Christians by rescuing them from persecution and/or giving them comfort. He entered the lists against the powers of evil, knowing that not all the battles are visible to human eyes.

Those who faltered, like Marcus and Marcellian, he encouraged; those pagans who had fiercely objected to the death of relatives and children, like their mother Zoë (a deaf mute whom he cured with the Sign of the Cross on her lips) and her husband Nicostratus (who was in charge of prisoners and cured of gout by Sebastian), he converted; for those who were martyred, he helped to make arrangements for burial and veneration of their bodies.

So successful was he as a soldier that he gained favor with the emperor Diocletian, who made him captain of the Praetorian Guard. He retained that position under Emperor Maximian when Diocletian left him in charge at Rome. Thus by his high rank and office he helped to relieve many who were imprisoned for Christ, though by so doing he placed himself in great peril.

Among the thrilling incidents of early Christian history is that of his bold deliverance of two brothers who had been condemned. He went openly to the house of he magistrate, where they were detained along with 16 heathen prisoners, and before them all spoke of the love of Christ to such effect that those who heard him, including the magistrate and the jailer, were converted. In the place where he spoke the only window was a hole in the roof, and as he stood directly under it the light shone down upon his rich tribune’s armor, leaving the rest of the room in darkness. Who could be sure that among so many there might not be one there who would betray him?

Afterwards, Claudius, the jailer, came with anxiety to the magistrate and reported: “The prefect is much disturbed at my having allowed the prisoners to be in your house; and therefore he requires you to appear before him and explain the reason.” Upon this, the magistrate went at once to the prefect and so impressed him with his account of what had happened, that he, too, was baptized, and after him 68 others, as a direct result of Sebastian’s intervention.

One version of the legend says that Tiburtius, the son of the prefect of Rome, and Chromatius, the prefect himself were converted because Sebastian cured him, too, of the painful gout with which he was afflicted. Thereafter, the prefect set many godly prisoners free, freed his slaves, and resigned as prefect. He retired to his estate in Campania, and took many of Sebastian’s converts with him to this place of relative safety.

Such activities could not long remain secret. Soon many of Sebastian’s converts were tortured and killed. First Nicostratus’s wife Zoë was discovered to be a Christian. Hung by her heels over a fire, she died of smoke inhalation. Nicostratus and the converted prefect were captured, tortured, and killed.

Finally, Sebastian was denounced to the emperor, who reproached him with ingratitude and accused him of conspiracy. Sebastian protested in vain that though he was a Christian he had never neglected his military duties. “I pray daily,” he said, “for thy safety and the prosperity of the State.” But Diocletian, who had returned, refused to listen, and ordered him to be shot to death with arrows.

By a strange providence, however, although his body was riddled with arrows and the archers thought he was dead, he recovered in the field where they had left him and was rescued by a friend, the widow of Saint Castulus named Saint Irene, who took him to her apartment near by in the imperial palace – and nursed him to recovery. The widow Irene then urged him to escape, but, casting aside discretion, he placed himself deliberately in the path of the emperor and called boldly for the relief of the Christians, who, he declared, were among the most loyal of his subjects.

The emperor, thinking he was dead, was startled as if he had seen a ghost. “You will have no peace,” cried Sebastian, “until you cease from shedding innocent blood.” The emperor angrily sentenced him to be cudgelled to death and his body to be thrown into the sewer, from which it was afterwards removed by a Christian woman called Lucina, who buried it in her own garden along the Appian Way.

In 367, Pope Saint Damasus built a basilica of San Sebastiano over his tomb, which was one of the seven stationary churches of Rome. Sebastian’s cultus dates from the 4th century; his name is found in the Depositio Martyrum, dated 354. That Sebastian was a martyr buried in a cemetery on the Appian Way is fact; all else is pious fiction dating no earlier than the 5th century. Some wrongly attribute these acta to Saint Ambrose.

Several writers testify that the relics of Saint Sebastian were given to Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denys, by Pope Eugenius II and deposited in Saint Medard’s at Soissons on December 9, 826, together with some of the relics of Saint Gregory the Great. These shrines were plundered by the Hugenots in 1564, and the sacred bones thrown into a ditch in which there was water. They were later found and re-enshrined in 1578, though the bones were then intermixed. Sebastian’s head was given to Saint Willibrord by Pope Sergius and is now kept at Echternach, Luxembourg. Other portions of his relics are widely dispersed.

It should be noted that Saint Ambrose says that Sebastian was born in Milan, Italy, where he was venerated as early as the 4th century (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Butler, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Gill, Husenbeth, White).

Arrows, representing pestilence as well as the instrument of his martyrdom, are Saint Sebastian’s emblem in art (Tabor). Generally he is portrayed as a young, nude man tied to a tree and shot through by bowmen. At times he may be shown (1) nude, pierced by or holding arrows; (2) richly dressed with bow and arrows; (3) as a young warrior with an arrow; (4) with sword and arrow; or (5) as the arrows are being removed by Saint Irene in the habit of a Benedictine nun. He should not be confused with the king Saint Edmund of England, who is always bearded and crowned (Roeder). There is a notable image of him in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence painted by Sodoma (Tabor).

The earliest representations of Sebastian, as in mosaics in Ravenna and at the church of Saint Peter in Chains in Rome (late 7th century) or in the frescoes of Saint Saba’s church (Rome; early 8th century), depict him as an elderly, bearded man holding a crown. Some later images also show Sebastian in this manner. The more popular image as a young man appeared in the late Middle Ages (Farmer).

As one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages (one of the 14 Holy Helpers), Saint Sebastian is patron of many: archers, armorers, athletes, bookbinders, burial societies, arrowsmiths, corn-chandlers, gardeners, ironmongers, lead-founders, municipal police, needle-makers, neighborhood watch operations, physicians, potters, racquet-makers, soldiers, and stone masons. He is invoked against cattlepest, epilepsy, enemies of religion, the plague, and by the dying (Delaney, Roeder, White).

(Dedicated to dear Father Sebastian, born and baptized on this day, who taught me what it means to really trust in God’s providence – and more than I ever wanted to know about Augustine, Aquinas, and Maritain. May God bless you abundantly, my joyful friend!)