ST. SEBASTIAN (JAN. 20TH)

A Late 17th Century Greek Icon of St. Sebastian 

By Bp. Joseph 

Today, January 20th, we remember the Great Roman Saint, Sebastian the Guardian. A faithful and compassionate Christian, full of bravery, manly virtue and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, St. Sebastian is a prototype of what Christians should strive to become by God’s grace! 

In AD 283, Sebastian entered the army in Rome under Emperor Carinus to assist the martyrs. Because of his courage he became one of the captains of the Praetorian Guards under Diocletian and Maximian, who were unaware that he was a Christian. This story comes down to us in the “Passio Sancti Sebastiani”, believed to have been written by St. Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century. 

According to this tradition, Marcus and Marcellianus were twin brothers from a distinguished Roman family and were deacons. Both brothers married, and they resided in Rome with their wives and children. These noble brothers refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods and were arrested and thrown into the prison where St. Sebastian was secretly serving the Christians. The deacons were visited by their parents Tranquillinus and Martia in prison, who attempted to persuade them to renounce Christianity. Upon hearing their arguments for rejecting Christ, St. Sebastian reasoned with them and succeeded in converting Tranquillinus and Martia. The master of the prison, a Prefect named Nicostratus, and his wife Zoe, were also converted by hearing St. Sebastian’s witness to the concerned parents of the prisoners. The Prefect’s wife, Zoe, had been a mute for six years. When she made known to St. Sebastian her desire to be converted to Christianity, her speech returned and she praised and glorified God. Nicostratus then brought the rest of the prisoners and these 16 prisoners were converted by the preaching of St. Sebastian. Although they were imprisoned, the jail became a church filled with the Holy Spirit, and many who visited its foreboding and thick walls were enlightened with the truth of the Gospel.

In AD 286, Emperor Diocletian heard a report that his chief jailers were Christians and that they relieved the suffering of the Christians who were held in his prison. Rather than shrinking in fear from imprisonment, many Christians were willingly giving themselves up for arrest and were freely worshipping God in a place the Emperor imagined would be filled with shrieks of terror and cries of anguish. Extremely enraged, Diocletian commanded that St. Sebastian be led to a field and there bound to a stake so that the his archers could use him for target practice. "And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin is full of spines, and thus left him there for dead." Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him. The widow of Castulus, St. Irene of Rome, went to retrieve his body to bury it, and discovered he was still alive. She brought him back to her house and nursed him back to health.

After being restored to health, St. Sebastian took up residence by a staircase where the Emperor often passed and openly preached against Diocletian for his cruelties towards the Christians. Passing by, the Emperor saw St. Sebastian and was overcome with fear, since the Saint was supposed to have already been martyred. Recovering from his surprise, the Emperor gave orders for St. Sebastian to be seized and beaten to death by his Praetorian Guard, and his body thrown into the sewer. A pious woman, named Lucina, saw St. Sebastian in a dream and was instructed to remove his body and burry it in a Christian manner in the catacombs at the entrance of the Cemetery of Calixtus, where now stands the Basilica of St. Sebastian.

COLLECT 

ALMIGHTY GOD, Grant us, we pray Thee, a spirit of fortitude, so that, taught by the glorious example of Thy Martyr Saint Sebastian, we may learn to obey Thee rather than men. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.