(A.D. 303.)
[All the ancient Latin Martyrologies. The Greeks commemorate him on
December 18th. The original Acts are not in our possession. What is
regarded as the Acts appears to be a panegyric, falsely attributed
to S. Ambrose, on S. Sebastian's Day. The incidents are no doubt
taken from the original Acts, but the long sermons and theological
instructions put into the mouths of S. Sebastian and Tranquillinus,
are certainly oratorical compositions of the author who passes for
S. Ambrose.]
S. Sebastian was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents were of
Milan, in Italy, and he was brought up in that city. He was a fervent
soldier of Christ at the same time that he served in the army of the
Emperor. He was so greatly regarded by the Emperors Diocletian and
Maximian, that he was elevated to the command of the first cohort, for
he was a man prudent, upright in word and act, faithful in business,
fervent in spirit. He was enabled, by his rank and office, to be of
service to those who were imprisoned for the faith of Christ. He
relieved their sufferings, and urged them to constancy.
Two brothers, Marcus and Marcellianus, had been accused of being
Christians, and were expecting execution in prison, when their friends,
admitted to see them, implored them with tears to save their lives by
apostasy. They seemed to waver; they promised to deliberate. Sebastian
heard of this, and rushed to save them. He was too well known to be
refused admittance, and he entered their gloomy prison as an angel of
light.
Tranquillinus, the father of the two youths, had obtained from Agrestius
Chromatius,[94] prefect of the city, a respite of thirty days for them,
to try their constancy; and, to second his efforts, they had been placed
in the house of Nicostratus, the keeper of the records (_primiscrinius_).
Sebastian's was a bold and perilous office. Besides the two Christian
captives, there were gathered in the place sixteen heathen prisoners;
there were the parents of the unfortunate youths weeping over them, to
allure them from their threatened fate; and there was the magistrate,
Nicostratus, with his wife Zoë, drawn thither by the compassionate wish
of seeing the youths snatched from their fate. Could Sebastian hope that
of this crowd not one would be found whom a sense of official duty, or a
hope of pardon, or hatred of Christianity, might impel to betray him, if
he avowed himself a Christian?
The room was illumined only by an opening in the roof, and Sebastian,
anxious to be seen by all, stood in the ray which shot through it;
strong and brilliant where it beat, but leaving the rest of the
apartment dark. It broke against the gold and jewels of his rich
tribune's armour, and as he moved, scattered itself in brilliant
reflections into the darkest recesses of the gloom; while it beamed with
serene steadiness on his uncovered head.[95]
"O most happy soldiers of Christ, valiant warriors in the fight! are ye
now, after having undergone so much that ye touch the palm, are ye now,
I ask, about to withdraw from the fight and lay aside the crown,
overcome by these blandishments? Let them see in you the fortitude of
Christian soldiers, sheathed rather in fortitude than in armour of iron.
Can it be that you will cast away the rewards of victory at the
instigation of a woman? Can it be that half-conquering already, you will
bow your necks to be trampled on by the deadly foe?" Words of reproach
and threatening and promise poured from his lips.[96]
The scene that followed baffles description. All were moved; all wept.
Marcus and Marcellianus were ashamed of their late hesitation.
Tranquillinus and his wife were convinced; the prisoners joined in the
tumult of these new affections; and Sebastian saw himself surrounded by
a group of men and women smitten by grace, softened by its influences,
and subdued by its power; yet all was lost if one remained behind. He
saw the danger, not to himself, but to the Church, if a sudden discovery
were made, and to those souls fluttering in uncertain faith.
Zoë knelt before Sebastian with a beseeching look and outstretched arm,
but she spoke not a word, for, six years before, her tongue had been
paralysed in a severe sickness, and she had not spoken since. Sebastian
looked at her earnestly, and read in her signs, and the expression of
her countenance, that she believed in her heart. Then he asked wherefore
she spoke not, and it was told him that she was dumb. Then, raising his
hand and signing her mouth with a cross, he said, "If I am the true
servant of Christ, and those things are true which I have spoken, and
thou O, woman, hast heard, may the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom I believe,
restore the use of thy tongue, and open thy mouth, as he opened the
mouth of his prophet Zachariah."
Then suddenly the woman cried out:--"Blessed art thou, and blessed is
the word of thy mouth, and blessed are they that believe in Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God." And when Nicostratus saw the grace
of God revealed by the healing of his wife, he fell at the feet of
Sebastian, and offered to break the chains off the hands and feet of the
confessors, and let them go; but to this they would not consent. Then
Nicostratus transferred them all, with Tranquillinus and his wife, to
the full liberty of his house, after having obtained leave from Claudius
the keeper of the prisons (_Commentariensis_.) Sebastian lost no time in
putting them under the care of the priest Polycarp, of the title, or
parish of S. Pastor, who diligently instructed them, night and day. In
the meantime, Claudius, the gaoler, came to the house of Nicostratus,
and said, "The prefect is much disturbed at my having allowed the
prisoners to be in your house; and therefore he requires you to appear
before him and explain the reason."
Nicostratus at once went to the prefect, and told him that he had taken
the Christian prisoners into his own house, with the purpose of moving
them the more easily to apostasy. "You did well," said Chromatius, and
he dismissed him. On his way home, the keeper of the rolls told Claudius
the truth; and when he related how Sebastian had healed his wife,
Claudius exclaimed in an agony of eagerness:--"Send him to my house, I
have two lads, sons of my first wife, one dropsical, the other a poor
wretched cripple. If he cured your wife, he can heal my sons." Then
running home, he brought his two boys, one in each arm, to the house of
Nicostratus, and introduced them into the company of the neophytes, and
casting the boys in the midst, implored the disciples to recover his
poor children, and declaring that he believed with all his heart. Then
Polycarp, the priest, took the names of the whole company, they were
sixty-eight in all, and he baptized them. Now when the two boys rose
from the baptismal water, they were healed of their infirmities; and
Tranquillinus, who had suffered excruciating torments from the gout,
also felt that he was made whole.
Chromatius, the prefect, was afterwards converted, and having resigned
his office, retired into privacy.
The care which Sebastian took of the Christian prisoners, and the
efforts he made to stimulate their courage, could not long remain
secret; and he was denounced to the Emperor Diocletian, who sent for
him, and in a rage, exclaimed, "What! I have had thee about my person,
and thou hast conspired against my safety!"
S. Sebastian answered, "I pray daily for thy safety and for the
prosperity of the state, to the God of heaven, for I reckon no succour
can be got from gods of stone."
Then Diocletian ordered him to be taken out into a field, and be shot to
death with arrows. Therefore the soldiers placed him as their mark, and
left him for dead, bristling with arrows. But a certain woman, named
Irene, the widow of the martyr Castulus, finding that he still lived,
took him to her lodgings, at the head of the great staircase of the
palace, and there nursed him till he was convalescent. And one day, as
he began to walk, the Emperor passed. Then he started out to the head of
the stairs. He had heard the familiar trumpet notes, which told him of
the Emperor's approach, and he had risen, and crept to greet him.
[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN.
From a Drawing by Lucas Schraudolf.
Jan. 20.]
"Diocletian!" he cried out, in a hollow but distinct voice; "False are
the words of thy idol priests, my sovereign, who say that we Christians
are adversaries to the state; who cease not to pray for thy welfare and
that of the realm."
"What!" exclaimed the Emperor; "Art thou Sebastian?" "I am Sebastian,
raised as from death to witness against thee for thy cruel persecution
of the servants of Christ."
Then the Emperor, in a rage, ordered him to be taken into the court-yard
of the palace, and to be beaten to death with clubs, and his body to be
cast into the sewer.
And when all this had been done, a devout woman, named Lucina, by night
rescued the body from the place where it had been cast, and buried it
reverently in her own garden.
A church was afterwards built over his relics by Pope Damasus.
Patron of Chiemsee, Mannheim, Oetting, Palma, Rome, Soissons; of makers
of military laces, of archers, makers of fencing foils.
Relics, at Soissons, the head at Eternach, in Luxemburg, portions at
Mantua, at Malaga, Seville, Toulouse, Munich, Paris, Tournai, in the
Cathedral; Antwerp, in the church of the Jesuits; and at Brussels, in
the Court Chapel.
In art, can always be recognized as a young man, transfixed with arrows.