SAINT SEBASTIAN
January 20
from The Golden Legend¹


Sebastian comes from sequens, following; beatitudo, beatitude; astin, city; and ana, above; and it means one who pursues the beatitude of the city on high; for he earned it, as Augustine writes, at a fivefold price. Through his poverty he gained the kingdom, through his suffering, eternal joy, through striving and labor, eternal rest, through humiliation, glory, and through his death, life. Or Sebastian comes from bastum, saddle, for Christ is the knight, the Church the steed, Sebastian the saddle: so Christ fought through him in the Church and led many martyrs to victory. Or Sebastian means one who is surrounded; for he was surrounded by arrows, like a porcupine with quills. Or it means one who goes about, because he went among the captive Christians and fortified them for their trials.

Sebastian was a good Christian. He was a native of Narbonne and a citizen of Milan. But the pagan emperors Maximian and Diocletian felt so great an affection for him that they had named him leader of the First Cohort, and attached him to their personal following. As for him, he wore the knightly coat of mail only in order to be able to assist and console the persecuted Christians, lest they succumb to their suffering,

One day, two twin brothers, Marcellinus and Mark, were to be beheaded because they had refused to renounce the faith of Christ, and their parents came to try to persuade them to yield. Their mother visited them first, with her hair dishevelled, her raiment in tatters, her breast bare, and said to them: '0 my beloved sons, what unheard of misery, what frightful grief, have fallen upon! Unhappy woman that I am, I am losing my sons by their own wish! If the enemy had taken them from me, I would have run into the thick of the battle to snatch them back! If the judges had seized them and thrown them into prison, I would have broken in even if I were to give my life to deliver them! But this is a new kind of death, in which the victim begs the headsman to strike, in which the living yearn to live no longer, and invite death in lieu of evading it! This is a strange sort of agony, in which the youth of the sons is thrown away by their own choice, and the old age of the parents is condemned to survive!' Next came the father, borne up on the arms of his slaves, his head covered with ashes; and the old man cried out: 'I am come to say farewell to my sons, who of their own will have chosen to leave us! The grave which I had prepared for me will now be their grave. 0 my sons, staff of my old age and blood of my heart, why do You love death so much? Let all young men come and weep over these youths who crave death! Let all old men join me in mourning for my sons! Come all ye fathers, and see that your own sons do not suffer in like manner! And you, my eyes, be blinded with tears, test I see my sons fall beneath the sword!' Then the wives of the two holy young men appeared, bearing their children in their arms, and groaning, and saying: 'To whose care do you entrust us? Who will be the guardians of these children? Who will divide your goods? Are your hearts made of iron, that you disdain your parents, repulse your wives, and deny your children?' And already the courage of the youths was beginning to weaken, when Saint Sebastian, who was present at the scene, came forward and said: 'Brave soldiers of Christ, let not these sweet words and pleas rob you of the eternal crown!' Then, turning to the parents, he said to them: 'Be without fear! They will not be separated from you, but will go to prepare lasting dwellings for you in Heaven! For know that from the beginning of the world, life has betrayed those who have built upon it, it fopped those who sought it, and derided those who trusted in it. And there is so little security in it that one may well say one is completely deceived by it. It encourages the thief to steal the passionate to strike blows, the liar to deceive. This life commands sin, recommends evil and counsels injury. But the persecution which we suffer on earth, flames up today and blows away like smoke tomorrow; today it is hot and tomorrow cool, in an hour it is done. But eternal suffering is ever renewed that it may be more fearful, it is increased that it may burn deeper, and it is fanned that the punishment may be fulfilled. Therefore our sole desire should be to suffer martyrdom gladly. What though the Devil thinks to conquer us here, when he tries to catch us, he himself is caught; when he snatches at us, he is bound; when he would conquer, he is vanquished; when he tortures, he suffers; when he ridicules, he himself is the object of derision, when he grasps our throats, he dies.'

And while Sebastian was speaking thus, a great light, coming from Heaven, surrounded him, and they saw him suddenly wrapped about in a mantle of gleaming white, with seven angels standing before him. And Zoe, the wife of Nicostratus, in whose house the youths were under guard, came and threw herself at Sebastian's feet, and implored his aid with gestures, for she had lost the power of speech. Then the saint said: 'If I am the servant of God, and the things I have said are true, 0 Thou Who didst open the mouth of the prophet Zacharias, open the mouth of this woman!' And the woman, her tongue loosened, cried out: 'Blessed be thy words, and blessed those who believe them! For I have seen an angel standing before thee, holding out to thee a book, wherein were written the words which thou didst utter!' And the woman's husband, coming in his turn to cast himself at the feet of the saint, begged for mercy, and struck off the chains of the martyrs, bidding them take their freedom. But they declared that or anything in the world would they put aside the victory which they had gained. And such was the divine power and grace of Sebastian's words, that not only did they strengthen Marcellinus and Mark in their constant desire of martyrdom, but also converted their father Tranquillinus, and their mother, and other persons, all of whom were baptized by the priest Polycarp.

And the aged Tranquillinus, who was suffering from a grievous malady, was cured as soon as he was baptized. Learning this, the prefect of the city of Rome, who was himself very ill, asked Tranquillinus to bring to him the man who had cured him. And when the old man had brought Sebastian and Polycarp the priest to him, he besought them to restore him to health. But Sebastian told him that he would not be heated unless he allowed them to destroy the idols of the gods in his presence. But Chromatius answered, 'Not you, but my servants should do this!' Sebastian replied, 'Thy servants fear to destroy their gods, and if the devils were to harm them, the pagans would say that it was because they had destroyed their gods.' Therefore Chromatius finally consented, and the two saints destroyed more than two hundred idols. Then they said to Chromatius: 'Since what we have just now done has not restored thee to health, it must be that thou keepest still another idol intact, or else thou hast not fully forsworn thy unbelief!' Then he confessed that he had in his house a secret room where the whole firmament was represented, enabling him to foresee the future. and he added that his father had spent more than two hundred pounds of gold in setting up this room. And Saint Sebastian said: 'As long as this chamber is not destroyed, thou wilt not recover thy health!' And Chromatius gave his consent to the destruction of the chamber. But his son Tiburtius, a proud youth, declared: 'I will not permit the tearing down of so splendid a work to go unpunished! But on the other hand I will not have it said that I do not wish with all my heart to see my father restored to health. Therefore I propose that two furnaces be heated, and that if after the chamber is demolished my father is not healed, these two Christians be burned alive!' Sebastian replied: 'Let it be done as thou hast said!' And while the magic chamber was being razed, an angel appeared to the prefect and announced to him that the Lord Jesus had restored his health. When the prefect saw that he had been healed, he ran after the angel in order to kiss his feet. But the angel would not suffer him to do so for he had not yet been baptized. Then the prefect and his son Tiburtius and four thousand persons of his household received baptism. And Zoe, who had been the first to be converted, was seized by the infidels, and died after long tortures. When the aged Tranquillinus heard of this he cried: 'Behold, the women go before us to the crown of martyrdom! Why do we delay?' And he himself was stoned a few days later.

Then Tiburtius received the order to burn incense to the gods, or else to walk barefoot on burning coals. Then, having made the sign of the cross, he walked over the burning coals, saying: 'Methinks I am walking on a bed of roses, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!' And the prefect Fabian said to him: 'I know that your Christ has taught you to practice the arts of magic!' To which Tiburtius answered: 'Silence, wretch! Thou art unworthy to utter this holy sweet Name!' Enraged, the prefect had him beheaded.

As for Marcellinus and Mark, they were attached to a gibbet, and there they chanted joyously: 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!' Then the prefect said to them: 'Madmen, renounce your folly, and save yourself!' But they replied: 'Never have we been so happy together! And we beseech thee to leave us as we are until our souls are freed from the prison of our bodies!' Whereupon the prefect had them run through with lances: and in this manner their martyrdom was accomplished.

Thereafter, this prefect denounced Sebastian to the Emperor Diocletian, who summoned him, and said: 'Ingrate, I have given thee the first rank in my palace, and thou hast striven against me and my gods!' Sebastian answered: 'For thee and for the State of Rome I have always prayed God Who is in Heaven!' Then Diocletian ordered him to be tied to a stake in the middle of the Campus Martius, and commanded his soldiers to transfix him with arrows. And the soldiers shot so many arrows at him that he was covered with barbs like a hedgehog; and then, thinking that he was dead, they left him there. But not many days after, Saint Sebastian stood on the steps of the palace, and accosted the two emperors, berating them severely for their injustice to the Christians. And the emperors said: 'Is this not Sebastian, whom we put to death with arrows?' And Sebastian retorted: 'The Lord has recalled me to life, so that once more I might come to you, and reproach you for the ill you do to the servants of Christ!' Then the emperors had him beaten with rods until he gave up the ghost. And they ordered his body to be thrown into the sewer, lest the Christians preserve and venerate it as the relic of a martyr. But the following night Saint Sebastian appeared to Saint Lucina, revealed to her where his body was, and bade her bury it at the feet of the Apostles: and this was done. He suffered martyrdom about the year of the Lord 287.

In the first book of his Dialogues, Saint Gregory tells the following story. A certain woman of Tuscany, recently married, had been invited to the dedication of a church to Saint Sebastian. But, the night before the ceremony, she was so aroused by desire that she could not abstain from the embraces of her husband. The next morning, nevertheless, this woman went to the church, being more in fear of the judgements of men than of the judgement of God. But scarcely had she entered the chapel where lay the relics of Saint Sebastian, when a demon seized upon her, and began to torture her in the sight of all. Then the priest of the church covered her with the altar veil, and at once the evil spirit lay hold of the priest. The woman was led to the house of magicians; but in the course of their incantations, a whole legion of demons, that is, a troop of six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six of them, entered into the woman to torment her still more sorely. But then came a holy man named Fortunatus, who by his prayers cured the woman.

We read in the Annals of the Longobards that in the time of King Humbert the whole of Italy was infected with a plague so violent that hardly anyone could be found to bury the dead: and this plague raged above all in Pavia. There were many who saw with their own eyes an angel in the heavens, followed by a demon with a rod. Whenever the angel commanded, the demon struck, and so made death. And as often as he touched a house, the dead were carried out of it. Then God made known to a pious man, that the bane would not cease until an altar was erected to Saint Sebastian in the city of Pavia. The attar was raised forthwith in the church of Saint Peter in Chains: whereupon the plague vanished completely. And the relics of Saint Sebastian were brought to Pavia from Rome, where his martyrdom had occurred.

Saint Ambrose writes of Saint Sebastian in his Preface: 'The blood of the holy martyr Sebastian, which was shed in Thy name, makes manifest Thy greatness, 0 Lord, Who through his intercession workest Thy might in the weak, crownest our efforts, and givest health to the sick.'


1. From: The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, trans. and adapted by Ryan, Granger and Helmut Ripperger. (Arno Press: Longmans, Green & Co) 1941. pp. 104-110.