Saint Sebastian

Sebastian lived in the third century AD and served as a soldier in Rome, though tradition holds he came from Milan. During the Diocletianic Persecution he was condemned for his Christian faith and tied to a post or tree, where archers shot him and left him for dead. Irene of Rome found him alive and nursed him back to health—a scene that would captivate painters fourteen centuries later. Once recovered, he sought out Diocletian personally to warn the emperor about his sins, a confrontation that ended with Sebastian clubbed to death. The Chronograph of 354 records veneration on January 20; by t…