St. Sebastian

Month of Saints - Day 2

At our All Souls Day Mass this evening, Father spoke in the Homily about all the people who are praying tonight for their team to win the World Series, so I was inspired today to write about the Patron Saint of Athletes.

Little is known of St. Sebastian's early life except that he is believed to have been from Southern France.  He was educated in Milan and joined the Roman Army in 283 AD. He distinguished himself and was promoted to the Praetorian Guard to protect Emperor Diocletian. During his service in the Guard, twin brothers and deacons of the Christian Church, Marcus and Marcellian, were imprisoned for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods. When their parents attempted to get the brothers to renounce their faith, Sebastian ended up converting them to Christianity as well.  This led to the discovery of his faith and he was reported to the Emperor as a Christian. The Emperor ordered him to be killed by having him tied to a stake on a training field and used as target practice.

Archers riddled his body with arrows and, believing him to be dead, left his body for retrieval and burial. He was retrieved by Irene of Rome, who discovered that he was still alive and nursed him back to health. Once he recovered, Sebastian returned to surprise Emperor Diocletian and to criticize him loudly and publically for his persecution of the Christians. Diocletian then had his former guard beaten to death with clubs and his body thrown into the sewer.

Sebastian is the patron of athletes, soldiers and those who desire a saintly death (or maybe those with a death-wish?).  His feast day is January 20.