Sebastian (Latin:Sebastianus;c. AD 255 – c. AD 288) was an earlyChristiansaint andmartyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during theDiocletianic Persecution ofChristians. He was initially tied to a post or tree and shot with arrows, though this did not kill him. He was, according to tradition, rescued and healed byIrene of Rome, which became a popular subject in 17th-century painting. In all versions of the story, shortly after his recovery he went toDiocletian to warn him about his sins, and as a result he was clubbed to death.[1][2] He is venerated in theCatholic Church and theOrthodox Church as the patron saint of athletics, archery, and plagues.
The oldest mention of Sebastian's martyrdom is in theChronograph of 354, which says he is venerated on January 20. He is also mentioned in a sermon onPsalm 118 by 4th-century bishopAmbrose of Milan: in his sermon, Ambrose stated that Sebastian came fromMilan and that he was already venerated there at that time. The full account of his martyrdom comes from thePassio Sancti Sebastiani, a 5th-century text written by an anonymous author, possiblyArnobius the Younger.
Sebastian is a popular male saint, especially today among athletes.[3][4] In medieval times, he was regarded as a saint with a special ability to intercede to protect fromplague, and devotion to him greatly increased when plague was active.
There is not much known about Saint Sebastian's early life, but the ancient source mentioning Sebastian is found in theChronograph of 354, a compilation of chronological and calendrical texts produced in 354 AD by the calligrapher and illustratorFurius Dionysius Filocalus, which mentions him as a martyr who was venerated on January 20. His cult is also mentioned byAmbrose of Milan in hisExpositio in Psalmum CXVIII, a theological and exegetical commentary ofPsalm 118 dated to 386–390 AD; Ambrose states that Sebastian came fromMilan and that he was venerated as a saint there.[5]
The first surviving account of Sebastian's life and death is thePassio Sancti Sebastiani, long thought to have been written by Ambrose in the 4th century, but now regarded as a 5th-century account by an unknown author (possiblyArnobius the Younger). This includes the "two martyrdoms", and the care by Irene in between, and other details that remained part of the story.[6]
According to tradition, Marcus and Marcellianus were twin brothers from a distinguished family and weredeacons. Both brothers married, and they resided in Rome with their wives and children. The brothers refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods and were arrested. They were visited by their parents Tranquillinus and Martia in prison, who attempted to persuade them to renounce Christianity. Sebastian succeeded in converting Tranquillinus and Martia, as well asTiburtius, the son of Chromatius, the local prefect. Another official, Nicostratus, and his wife Zoe were also converted. It has been said that Zoe had been a mute for six years; however, she made known to Sebastian her desire to be converted to Christianity. As soon as she had, her speech returned to her. Nicostratus then brought the rest of the prisoners; these 16 persons were converted by Sebastian.[8]
Chromatius and Tiburtius converted; Chromatius set all of his prisoners free from jail, resigned his position, and retired to the country inCampania. Marcus and Marcellianus, after being concealed by a Christian namedCastulus, were later martyred, as were Nicostratus, Zoe, and Tiburtius.[9]
According to his legend, Sebastian had prudently concealed his faith, but in 286 it was detected. Diocletian reproached him for his supposed betrayal, and he commanded him to be led to a field and there to be bound to a stake so that the chosen archers fromMauretania would shoot arrows at him. "And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as anurchin[Note 1] is full of pricks, and thus left him there for dead."[14] Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him. The widow of Castulus,Irene of Rome, went to retrieve his body to bury it, and discovered he was still alive. She brought him back to her house and nursed him back to health;[2]Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene became a popular subject in art in the late Renaissance.
In the legend, Sebastian later stood by a staircase where the emperor was to pass and harangued Diocletian for his cruelties against Christians. This freedom of speech, and from a person whom he supposed to have been dead, greatly astonished the emperor; but recovering from his surprise, he gave orders for Sebastian to be seized and beaten to death withcudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A holy lady named Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, privately removed the body and buried it in thecatacombs at the entrance of the cemetery of Callixtus,[9] where now stands theBasilica of St. Sebastian.[2]
Remains reputed to be those of Sebastian are housed in Rome in theBasilica Apostolorum, built byPope Damasus I in 367 on the site of the provisional tomb of SaintsPeter andPaul. The church, today calledSan Sebastiano fuori le mura, was rebuilt in the 1610s under the patronage ofScipione Borghese.
Ado, Eginard, Sigebert, and other contemporary authors relate that, in the reign ofLouis Debonnair,Pope Eugenius II gave the body of Sebastian to Hilduin, Abbot of St. Denys, who brought it intoFrance, and it was deposited atSaint Medard Abbey, atSoissons, on 8 December, in 826.[9]
Sebastian'scranium was brought to the town ofEbersberg (Germany) in 934. A Benedictine abbey was founded there and became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in southern Germany.[15] It is said the silver-encased cranium was used as a cup in which to present the consecrated wine of theBlessed Sacrament to the faithful during the feast of Saint Sebastian.[16]
The belief that Saint Sebastian was a defense againstthe plague was a medieval addition to his reputation, which largely accounts for the enormous increase in his importance in theLate Middle Ages.[18] The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one. However, the hopeful example of Sebastian being able to recover from his "firstmartyrdom" (or "sagittation", as it is sometimes called) was relevant as the arrow-wounds can resemble thebuboes that were symptoms of bubonic plague. Visually, "the arrow wounds call to God for mercy to us, as the symptoms of the infirm call for pity from the passerby", asMolanus put it.[19]
ThechroniclerPaul the Deacon relates that, in 680,Rome was freed from a raging pestilence by him. TheGolden Legend transmits the episode of a great plague that afflicted theLombards in the time of King Gumburt, which was stopped by the erection of an altar in honor of Sebastian in the Church of Saint Peter in theProvince of Pavia.
Mosaic inSan Pietro in Vincoli, ?682Print of Saint Sebastian. Made in the sixteenth century.[20]Saint Sebastian byGuido Reni, oil on canvas, circa 1615.
The earliest known representation of Sebastian is a mosaic in theBasilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy) dated between 527 and 565.[21] The right lateral wall of the basilica contains large mosaics representing a procession of 26 martyrs, led by Saint Martin and including Sebastian. The martyrs are represented in Byzantine style, lacking any individuality, and all have identical expressions.
Another early representation is in a mosaic in the Church ofSan Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, probably made in the year 682. It shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow.[22] The archers and arrows begin to appear by 1000, and ever since have been far more commonly shown than the actual moment of his death by clubbing, so that there is a popular misperception that this is how he died.[23]
As protector of potential plague victims (a connection popularized by theGolden Legend[24]) and soldiers, Sebastian occupied an important place in the popular medieval mind. He was among the most frequently depicted of all saints by Late Gothic and Renaissance artists, in the period after theBlack Death.[25] The opportunity to show a semi-nude young male, often in a contorted pose, also made Sebastian a favorite subject.[26] His shooting with arrows was the subject of the largestengraving by theMaster of the Playing Cards in the 1430s, when there were few other current subjects with male nudes other than Christ. Sebastian appears in many otherprints and paintings, although this was due to his popularity with the faithful. Among many others,Botticelli,Perugino,Titian,Pollaiuolo,Giovanni Bellini,Guido Reni (who painted the subject seven times),Mantegna (three times),Hans Memling,Gerrit van Honthorst,Luca Signorelli,El Greco,Honoré Daumier,John Singer Sargent andLouise Bourgeois all painted Saint Sebastians. An early work by the sculptorGianlorenzo Bernini is ofSaint Sebastian.
The saint is ordinarily depicted as a handsome youth pierced by arrows.Predella scenes when required often depicted his arrest, confrontation with the Emperor, and final beheading.
Woodblock of St. Sebastian from South Germany,c. 1470–1475
In 1911, the Italian playwrightGabriele d'Annunzio in conjunction withClaude Debussy producedLe Martyre de saint Sébastien. The American composerGian Carlo Menotti composed a ballet score for aBallets Russes production which was first given in 1944. In his novellaDeath in Venice,Thomas Mann hails the "Sebastian-Figure" as the supreme emblem ofApollonian beauty, that is, the artistry of differentiated forms; beauty as measured by discipline, proportion, and luminous distinctions. This allusion to 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.[33]
Sebastian's death was depicted in the 1949 filmFabiola, in which he was played byMassimo Girotti.[34] In 1964,Frank O'Hara publishedLunch Poems (City Lights Books), including his famous "Having a Coke With You," in which he says his beloved looks "like a better happier St. Sebastian."[35] In 1976, the British directorDerek Jarman made a film,Sebastiane, which caused controversy in its treatment of the martyr as a "homosexual icon", according to a number of critics reflecting a subtext perceptible in the imagery since the Renaissance.[1] Also in 1976, in the American horror filmCarrie, a figure of Saint Sebastian (commonly misconstrued as a figure of the crucified Christ) appears in Carrie's prayer closet.[36]
A depiction of Saint Sebastian in a fresco restoration in an isolated Italian village is the central motif and cryptic mystery of the 1976giallo horror filmThe House with Laughing Windows.[37]
The music video for the 1991R.E.M. songLosing My Religion briefly features imagery of Saint Sebastian at 1:10, 3:18, 4:05, and 4:24, but with arrows that are clearly attached with tape.
In 2007, artistDamien Hirst presented Saint Sebastian, Exquisite Pain from his Natural History series. The piece depicts a cow informaldehyde, bound in metal cable and shot with arrows.[39]
British pop bandAlt-J's video for "Hunger of the Pine" contains references to the story of Saint Sebastian's death, adapted to fit the lyrics of the song.Tarsem Singh's video for theR.E.M. song "Losing My Religion" makes use of imagery of Saint Sebastian, drawing particular inspiration from paintings by Guido Reni[40] andCaravaggio.[41] The indie folk bandthe Mountain Goats have a song called "Hail, St. Sebastian" that makes reference to his life.[42] Scottish musicianMomus has a song "Lucky like St Sebastian", featuring on his 1986 debut albumCircus Maximus.[citation needed]
Madonna's song "I'm a Sinner" from her 2012 albumMDNA has a segment resembling alitany, including the line, "St. Sebastian, don't you cry; let those poisoned arrows fly."[43]
The 2013–2018 Canadian drama seriesForgive Me centres on a priest haunted by recurring visions of Saint Sebastian.[44]
The look of the character Gemino in the popular action-platform videogameBlasphemous is clearly inspired by Saint Sebastian.[45]
In theCatholic Church, Sebastian is commemorated by an optional memorial on 20 January. In theChurch of Greece, Sebastian's feast day is on 18 December.
As a protector from thebubonic plague, Sebastian was formerly one of theFourteen Holy Helpers. In Catholicism, Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, pin-makers, athletes (a modern association) and of a holy death.[46]
Sebastian is one of thepatron saints of the city ofQormi inMalta[47] Sebastian is thepatron saint of Acireale,Caserta andPetilia Policastro inItaly,Melilli inSicily, andSan Sebastián as well asPalma de Mallorca,Lubrín andHuelva in Spain. He is the patron saint ofNegombo, Sri Lanka andRio de Janeiro, Brazil. Informally, in the tradition of theAfro-Braziliansyncretic religionUmbanda, Sebastian is often associated withOxossi, especially in the state of Rio de Janeiro itself.[33]InLubrín, every year on 20 January, there is a festival in honor of Saint Sebastian. A statue of Saint Sebastian leads a procession around the village, and people hurl bread rolls from their balconies to the crowds following the saint in the streets below. The rolls have a hole in the middle and some people string them on a rope around their body. The festival is thought to have originated in the 14th century, after a plague ofcholera hit the area. At this time, the wealthy were said to have thrown bread and money to the poor on the streets below, so as to avoid catching the disease.[48] The San Sebastian 'bread festival' is so unusual that it has been declared a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest inAndalusia.[49]
KingSebastian I of Portugal, the only King to ever have this name, was so named for having been born on this saint's feast day.
The Feast of St. Sebastian is celebrated amongCatholic communities ofKerala in India. Churches are illuminated and decorated, with fireworks being a main event in Catholic homes to commemorate the saint.[50] Every parish has its own date of celebration, especially in the districts ofThrissur,Ernakulam,St. Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal andKottayam. InKanjoor Syro Malabar Church the feast is celebrated with the largest procession of golden crosses and decorated umbrellas in Asia.[50] Besides this, many pilgrim centres, churches, shrines and many educational institutions too, throughout Kerala, bear the name of the saint.
He is the patron of San Sebastian College – Recoletos inManila, Philippines, which is adjacent to the Minor Basilica of San Sebastian, the all-steel church in the Philippines and in Asia administered by the Order of Augustinian Recollect (OAR). At the Catholic Newman Community at theUniversity of Rochester, the St. Sebastian Society is an organization of campus-wide Christian athletes that works to serve the greaterRochester, New York, area through methods ofrestorative justice, special needsfundraising andcommunity service.[51]
In his 1906Reminiscences,Carl Schurz recalls the annual "bird shoot" pageant of theRhenish town ofLiblar (de), sponsored by the Saint Sebastian Society, a club ofsharpshooters and their sponsors to which nearly every adult member of the town belonged.[52]
Saint Sebastian,Carlo Saraceni, c. 1610–1616, Picture Gallery of thePrague Castle. The image of Sebastian pierced by arrows has regularly been described as homoerotic.[54]
In 1996, American author Richard A. Kaye wrote that "Contemporary gay men have seen in Sebastian at once a stunning advertisement for homosexual desire (indeed, a homoerotic ideal), and a prototypical portrait of torturedcloset case."[55][56]
Some religious images depicting Saint Sebastian have been adopted by theLGBTQ community.[57] A combination of his strong, shirtless physique, the symbolism of the arrows penetrating his body, and the countenance of rapturous pain have intrigued artists (gay or otherwise) for centuries.[57]
Oscar Wilde was known to have adored Guido Reni'sSaint Sebastian, which is in the collection of the Palazzo Rosso, in Genoa. While exiled in Paris, Wilde went so far as to adopt the alias Sebastian Melmoth during the remaining years of his life.[58] Other homosexual poets and artists likeFederico García Lorca orPier Paolo Pasolini highlighted the importance of Saint Sebastian imagery in their work.[59]
InYukio Mishima's novelConfessions of a Mask, the protagonist Kochan has his first gay sexual experience while looking at a reproduction ofGuido Reni'sSaint Sebastian. Kochan remarks:
It is an interesting coincidence that Hirschfeld should place 'pictures of Saint Sebastian' in the first rank of those kinds of art works in which the invert takes special delight.
This referencesMagnus Hirschfeld's belief that gay men have an inclination towards certain artistic subjects including Saint Sebastian.[60]
^abcdFr. Paolo O. Pirlo, SHMI (1997). "St. Sebastian".My First Book of Saints. Holy Mary Immaculate – Quality Catholic Publications. pp. 22–23.ISBN971-91595-4-5.
^Hedquist, Valerie, "Ter Brugghen's Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene,"Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art §8–9, 9:2 (Summer 2017) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2017.9.2.3,fully online;The Vatican: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, eds.Philippe De Montebello, Kathleen Howard, p. 347, 1983, Metropolitan Museum of Art,ISBN0870993488, 9780870993480,google books
^"[Fra Bartolommeo] painted a picture of S. Sebastian, naked, very lifelike in the colouring of the flesh, sweet in countenance, and likewise executed with corresponding beauty of person, whereby he won infinite praise from the craftsmen. It is said that, while this figure was exposed to view in the church, the friars found, through the confessional, women who had sinned at the sight of it, on account of the charm and melting beauty of the lifelike reality imparted to it by the genius of Fra Bartolommeo; for which reason they removed it from the church."Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors & architects by Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574
^Kaye, Richard A. (1996). "Losing His Religion: Saint Sebastian as Contemporary Gay Martyr". In Horne, Peter; Lewis, Reina (eds.).Outlooks: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities and Visual Cultures. New York: Routledge. p. 105.doi:10.4324/9780203432433.ISBN9781134803088.S2CID241421117.
Hedquist, Valerie, "Ter Brugghen's Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene,"Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 9:2 (Summer 2017)doi:10.5092/jhna.2017.9.2.3,fully online
Mitchell, Peter, "The Politics of Morbidity: Plague Symbolism in Martyrdom and Medical Anatomy", inThe Arts of 17th-Century Science: Representations of the Natural World in European and North American Culture, eds. Claire Jowitt, Diane Watt, 2002, Routledge,ISBN978-1351894449,google books
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