St. Sebastian
Feast 01-20
Patron of
About
Sebastian was a Christian soldier from Milan who served in the Praetorian Guard of the emperor Diocletian in Rome in the late third century. He used his position to encourage imprisoned Christians and to convert others, including the brothers Marcus and Marcellianus, who were awaiting execution.
When his faith was discovered, Diocletian ordered him bound to a stake and shot with arrows. Left for dead, he was found alive and nursed back to health by a Christian widow named Irene. He then confronted the emperor publicly and was beaten to death with clubs around 288, his body thrown into a sewer.
Sebastian became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, depicted in countless works of art. Because the plague was believed to strike like arrows, he was invoked against epidemics, and he remains the patron of soldiers, athletes, and those suffering from plague and disease.
Suggested prayer
O God, who gave Sebastian courage to survive the arrows and confront the emperor for Your name, grant through his intercession that soldiers may be brave in trial and all may be protected from illness of body and soul. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
