St. Sebastian - Jan. 20th

 

Today is we celebrate the memorial of St. Sebastian, who was a bodyguard of the emperor Diocletian. The Emperor became very hostile towards Christians and began a great persecution.

During the persecution, St. Sebastian assisted the suffering by consoling them in their afflictions and encouraging them to be faithful to Christ while they were imprisoned and tortured.

On one occasion, two brothers were arrested Mark and Marcellian. Their parents, who were not Christians, tried to persuade their sons to deny Jesus. As a result, St. Sebastian preached a long sermon encouraging them to endure being killed rather than to give up their faith in Jesus. The brothers were imprisoned in the home of a woman called Zoe, who was deaf and unable to speak, but miraculously heard the sermon of St. Sebastian, which caused her to want to become a Christian. Because she was cured, the parents of the two brothers decided to become Christian. The two brothers, their parents and St. Sebastian were taken before a judge and accused of being Christian, which was illegal.

Sebastian explained the truths of the Catholic faith to the judge which caused the judge to dismiss the charges and he too became Christian. However, a new trial was held and the new judge condemned all of them to death including the judge, who became Christian.

The emperor Diocletion requested that Sebastian come to see him. He asked Sebastian, if he was Christian and Sebastian courageously professed his faith in Jesus Christ. The emperor tried but was unable to make Sebastian give up his faith in Jesus and decided to kill him.

After tying him to a post, archers shot him with many arrows, such that they thought he had died. A woman by the name of Irene came to bury him, but was surprised to find that he was still alive. She untied him from the post, removed the arrows, cared for him in her home and treated his wounds. And with the help of God, he recovered.

Not long after he recovered his health, St. Sebastian went to see the emperor, who was shocked to see that he was still alive. Sebastian attempted to convince the emperor to stop the persecution of Christians, but the emperor became angry and ordered him to be clubbed to death. Sebastian died in the year 304AD. They threw his body in the main sewer of Rome. But at night, he appeared to a woman, named Lucia, and told her where his body was located and asked her to have his body buried in a tomb, in a cemetery where martyrs were buried.

About three hundred and eighty years after his death, when a disease was rapidly spreading through Rome, many people prayed asking St. Sebastian to stop the disease and it miraculously stopped. Centuries later, other cities had problems of the spread of disease and likewise prayed to him including the city of Milan in 1575 and the city of Lisbon, Portugal in 1599, which resulted in the miraculous ending of the diseases.

Today, let us pray to St. Sebastian to help us to stand up for our faith, never deny Jesus, and love our Catholic faith. St. Sebastian pray for us that we may courageously express our faith in Jesus!