St.
Sebastian was an officer in Rome in 283. Emperor Diocletian named him
Commander of the Praetorian Guard, unaware that he had became a Christian.
Sebastian sustained the courage of two imprisoned confessors, Mark and
Marcellian, as well as other Christian prisoners. He did not conceal his
faith and was arrested and sentenced to death by being shot with arrows.
Irene, the widow of St. Castulus the martyr, took the still breathing Sebastian
to a safe place and treated his wounds. Once cured, Sebastian defied the
Emperor once again; this time he was stoned. He is buried in a catacomb
near Via Appia. After Peter and Paul, Sebastian is the third patron
of Rome. He is also the patron saint of gunsmiths and is invoked against
plague and epilepsy. He is often depicted with an arrow, or arrows, in
his body.
See: Antonello da Messina. St.
Sebastian.
Giovanni Bellini. St. Sebastian.
Alessandro Botticelli St.
Sebastian,
Agnolo Bronzino. Portrait
of Young Man as Saint Sebastian.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Saint
Sebastian.
Correggio Madonna
and Child with St. Sebastian.
Honore Daumier. Martyrdom
of St. Sebastian.
Benozzo Gozzoli. St.
Sebastian. St.
Sebastian Intercessor. Martyrdom
of St. Sebastian.
El Greco. St.
Sebastian. St.
Sebastian.
Georges de La Tour. St.
Sebastian Tended by St. Irene, St.
Sebastian Tended by St. Irene.
Lorenzo Lotto Wings
of a triptych: St. Sebastian (left); St. Christopher (right).
Andrea Mantegna. St. Sebastian.
St. Sebastian.
Hans Memling The
Resurrection, with the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian and the Ascension.
Pietro Perugino. St.
Sebastian, Madonna and Child
Enthroned with St. John the Baptist and St. Sebastian.
Piero della Francesca. St.
Sebastian and St. John the Baptist.
Raphael St. Sebastian.
Jusepe de Ribera. St.
Sebastian, St. Irene, and St. Lucila.
Peter Paul Rubens St. Sebastian.
Titian St. Sebastian.
Cosme Tura. St. Sebastian.
Recommended reading:
The
Book of Saints: The Lives of the Saints According to the Liturgical Calendar
by George Angelini, Victor Hoagland (Editor). Regina Press, Malhame &
Company, 1986.
365
Saints: Your Daily Guide to the Wisdom and Wonder of Their Lives
by Woodeene Koenig-Brick (Author). Harper SanFrancisco, 1995.
The
Golden Legend by Jacobus De Voragine, William Granger Ryan
(Translator). Princeton Univ Pr, 1995.