St. Sebastian

St. Sebastian is one of the most famous martyrs of the early Roman Church, put to death around the year 288 during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian. The historical core of his story is secure: he was a real martyr, buried on the Appian Way outside Rome, and his veneration there is attested as early as the Roman calendar of 354, which lists his memorial on January 20. St. Ambrose, writing in the fourth century, says he came from Milan. The familiar details of his martyrdom come from a fifth-century Passion and should be read as hagiography rather than strict history. According to this account, Sebastian was an officer of the Praetorian Guard who kept his Christianity secret so that he could strengthen imprisoned Christians awaiting execution. When his faith was discovered, Diocletian ordered him shot with arrows and left for dead. Nursed back to health by a widow named Irene, Sebastian confronted the emperor over his cruelty and was then beaten to death with clubs. The image of the young soldier pierced with arrows became one of the most recognizable subjects in Christian art, painted by masters from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Because plague was popularly associated with arrows of divine judgment, Sebastian was invoked against epidemics from at least the seventh century, and gratitude for his intercession during outbreaks spread his cult across Europe. Venerated since long before formal canonization processes, Sebastian is honored on January 20. He is the patron of athletes, soldiers, and archers, and is still invoked against plague and disease. His tomb lies beneath the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura on the Appian Way—built above the catacombs that bear his name and counted for centuries among the great pilgrimage churches of Rome.