Sebastian

This article is about Saint Sebastian. See also Sebastian (disambiguation).

*Saint Sebastian*

Soldier, martyr
Born	unknown
Died	January 20,287 (martyred)
Venerated by	Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Western Orthodox
Feast	January 20(Catholic), December 18(Greek Orthodox)
Attributes	Martyrdom
Patron saint of	Soldiers, plague, arrows, atheletes, (unofficially) youth, and male beauty

Saint Sebastian (traditionally died January 20,Commemorated in his feast day 287, was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have died under the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the 3rd century. He is commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post and shot with arrows.

Contents

1 Meaning of name
2 Life

2.1 Hagiography
2.2 Historical evidence

3 Depictions in art and literature
4 Patronage
5 Saint Sebastian in popular culture
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links

Meaning of name

Sebastian's name, though it receives an elaborately constructed etymology in Legenda Aurea, may actually derive from the cognomen "Sebastianus". Sebaste was a common placename in Antiquity, the Greek equivalent of the Latin Augusta. The mortal remains asserted to be those of St. Sebastian are currently housed in a basilica that was built by Pope Damasus II in 367 (Basilica Apostolorum), on the site of the provisional tomb of St. Peter and St. Paul. The church, today called San Sebastiano fuori le mura, was rebuilt in the 1610s, under the patronage of Scipio Borghese.

Life

Hagiography

The details of Sebastian's martyrdom were first elaborated by Ambrose of Milan (died 397), in his sermon (number XX) on the 118th Psalm. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, states that Sebastian came from Milan and that he was already venerated there in the 4th century.

According to Sebastian's fifth-century Acta, still attributed to Ambrose by the 17th-century hagiographer Jean Bolland, he was a soldier who enlisted in the Roman army around 283. Diocletian, unaware that he was a Christian, appointed him as a captain of the Praetorian Guard. By 286, Sebastian was reportedly known for having kindly treated Christian prisoners due for martyrdom. Diocletian reproached him for his supposed ingratitude and ordered him executed by the arrows of the Mauretanian archers. He survived, and according to legend was healed by St. Irene, the widow of St. Castulus. Upon regaining his health, he returned to preach to Diocletian. Subsequently, the emperor ordered Sebastian to be clubbed to death.

Historical evidence

Historians have noted that Diocletian only issued an edict authorizing the systematic persecution of Christians across the Empire in 303, placing the traditional death of Sebastian before the persecution. A skull that is said to be Sebastian's is held as relic in the basilica of Santi Quattro Coronati, in Rome. The church of San Sebastiano al Palatino, on a hill next to the Roman Forum, was built on the traditional place of his execution.

Depictions in art and literature

'The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, by Andrea Mantegna.

"The earliest mosaic picture of St. Sebastian, which probably belongs to the year 682, shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow" (CE 1908). This method of execution made Sebastian a favourite for paintings. "Sebastian's martyrdom was a favourite subject of Renaissance artists, and it was depicted by, among others, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sandro Botticelli, Andrea Mantegna,Honthorst, Perugino, and El Greco; the saint is usually shown as a handsome youth pierced by arrows." (2006). Encyclopædia Britannica, "Sebastian, Saint". Retrieved May 11, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service [link] The illustration in the infobox is the Saint Sebastian of Il Sodoma, at the Pitti Palace, Florence.

In his novella Death in Venice, Thomas Mann hails the "Sebastian-Figure" as the supreme emblem of Apollonian beauty, that is, the artistry of differentiated forms, beauty as measured by discipline, proportion, and luminious distinctions. This allusion to Saint Sebastian's suffering, associated with the writerly professionalism of the novella's protagonist, Gustav Aschenbach, provides a model for the "heroism born of weakness," which characterizes poise amidst agonizing torment and plain acceptance of one's fate as, beyond mere patience and passivity, a stylized achievement and artistic triumph.

George Orwell's novel Nineteen-Eighty Four makes a reference to Saint Sebastian when the protagonist, Winston, fantasises about tying another character, Julia, to a stake naked and shooting her "full of arrows like Saint Sebastian."

Patronage

As a protector from the plague, Sebastian was formerly one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. (That cult was suppressed in the reform of the Roman Catholic liturgy in 1969.) The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one. In Greco-Roman myth, Apollo, the archer-god is the deliverer of pestilence; the figure of Sebastian Christianizes this familiar literary trope. The chronicler Paul the Deacon relates that Rome was freed from a raging pestilence in 680, by the patronage of this saint.

Sebastian, like Saint George, was one of a class of military martyrs and soldier saints of the Early Christian Church, whose cults originated in the 4th century and culminated at the end of the Middle Ages, in the 14th and 15th centuries, both in the East and the West. Details of their martyrologies may provoke some skepticism among modern readers, but certain consistent patterns emerge that are revealing of Christian attitudes. Such a saint was an athleta Christi, an "athlete of Christ", and a "Guardian of the heavens"

Saint Sebastian, along with Saint George, is the patron saint of the cities of Qormi (Malta) and Caserta (Italy).

In the Greek Orthodox Church, the feast day of Sebastian the Martyr is December 18. In the Roman Catholic Church, his feast day, set on January 20, is not mandatory.

According to Brazilian anthropologist Luiz Mott, Saint Sebastian (in Portuguese, São Sebastião) is considered by many homosexuals, especially in Brazil's lower and marginalized classes, the Patron Saint of Gays. Officially Saint Sebastian is the Patron Saint of the city of Rio de Janeiro. In the tradition of the Afro-Brazilian religious syncretism Saint Sebastian is often associated with Ogum, especially in the state of Bahia, in the northeast of the country (while Ogum in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul is more likely to be associated with Saint George).

Saint Sebastian in popular culture

The iconic image of Sebastian impaled with arrows appears in:

R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" music video, which combines the image of the saint with other religious imagery
Claude Debussy's "Le Martyre De Saint Sébastien", a musical piece inspired by the saint
Philip Glass includes a short musical piece titled "Saint Sebastian" in his score for the film Mishima, a reference to Mishima Yukio's Confession of a Mask in which a painting of St.Sebastian by Guido Reni plays a preponderant role in the main character's discovery of his own sexuality.
On the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Murder Ballads, the song "O'Malley's Bar" includes a brief reference to Saint Sebastian.
A statue of the saint appears in the movie Carrie.
The chorus of the Patti Smith song "Boy Cried Wolf" references the means of Sebastian's death.
In the TV series Lost, the hospital in which Jack Shephard and his father, Christian work is named after the saint.
In the film V for Vendetta, V has a painting of St. Sebastian in his home, the Shadow Gallery, which could be interpreted as V, a former political prisoner who had been tortured, thinking of Sebastian as his "patron saint."
In Season 16 of The Simpsons in the episode 'The Father, The Son and The Holy Guest Star' the saint is mentioned in a comic book "Lives of the Saints" clandestinely read by Bart in a catechism class
In the video for the song "Zombie" by The Cranberries, the singer, Dolores O'Riordan, is depicted strapped to a tree, surrounded by children, in a style clearly reminiscent of Sebastian.

Several films have been made about the life of Sebastian, mostly focusing on his iconic execution. Most notable of these are Derek Jarman's Sebastiane and Bavo Defurne's 1996 short film, Saint [link].

Notes

References

Claudio Rendina, Enciclopedia di Roma, Newton Compton, Rome, 2000.

redirect

External links

[Catholic Encyclopedia 1908:] "Saint Sebastian"
[Rev. Alban Butler, The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, vol. I] An elaboration of the Acta, introducing many circumstial details.
[Article in the Patron Saints Index]
[Iconography of Saint Sebastian]
[David Woods, "The Military Martyrs"]
Sebastian in gay [literature] and [art]
[Sebastian the Martyr, Greek Orthodox Church]

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