- Holy Martyr Sebastian and those with him (287)
- He grew up in Milan and became an army officer, where he
distinguished himself so well that the Emperor Diocletian made him
captain of the Praetorian Guard not suspecting that Sebastian was a
Christian. In Rome, while fulfilling the duties of a courtier, he used
his position to comfort and encourage his imprisoned fellow- Christians.
By his labors and example he brought many to faith in Christ,
including Chromatius, the Prefect who was charged with persecuting the
Roman Christians.
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Sebastian had upheld two brothers, Mark and Marcellinus, who were
awaiting execution
for their faith. When the day of execution came, their father
Tranquillinus who had been a
pagan but through Sebastian's example had converted presented himself
to Chromatius and
announced that he too was a Christian. His testimony was so powerful
that the hard heart of the Prefect was melted, and he himself resolved
to become a Christian.
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Caius, Bishop of Rome, gathered the new brethren (both men and women — not all of
Sebastian's converts have been mentioned here) to embrace them and baptize them, but also to
warn them of their coming Martyrdom. He instructed some to flee the city and others, headed by
Sebastian, to remain in Rome, devoting their days to fasting, prayer and thanksgiving as they
awaited their death. As the "company of Martyrs" did this, many came to them and were healed
of ailments, and many joined them in confessing Christ.
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When the time of martyrdom came, each member of the company was
subjected to
imaginatively cruel tortures before his execution. Sebastian himself
was made to witness the
deaths of all his companions, then to endure his own trial. He serenely
confessed his unshaken
faith before Diocletian himself before being taken to the place of
execution. There he was tied to a post and made the target of a band of
archers until his body bristled with arrows like the quills of a
porcupine. He was left for dead, but when Irene, widow of St Castulus,
came to bury him, she found him alive and tended his wounds. Amazingly,
he recovered, and presented himself once again to the Emperor.
Astonished and outraged, the tyrant ordered that Sebastian be beaten to
death with clubs and thrown into the city's sewer. That evening, a
pious Christian woman was told in a vision to retrieve his body and bury
it in the catacombs. After St Constantine brought peace to the Church,
Pope Damasus built a church over the site in the Saint's honor. For
hundreds of years, many miracles were worked there through St
Sebastian's intercessions.
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source: http://www.abbamoses.com |
