Charlie Lichauer

Mr. Campbell

13 December 2017

Religion 10

Saint Sebastian

Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of athletes, soldiers, and those who desire a saintly

death. Saint Sebastian was born in Milan, Italy and was raised in the Catholic faith. He grew up

hating the Roman army and what they were doing to Christians at the time. Although his hatred

for the Roman army was strong, he joined the army, with intentions to help the persecuted

Christians. Saint Sebastian was later arrested by the Roman army and had accepted his

martyrdom. While Saint Sebastian was in jail, he had successfully converted the jailer and most

of the inmates inside the jail. He was ordered to be tied to a stake and then be shot by archers and

he had accepted his fate. When Saint Sebastian was presumed dead, as his body was full of

arrows, Irene of Rome recovered his body and he was discovered to be alive. He was nursed

back to full health and went to criticize Diocletian for the persecution of the Christians.

Diocletian was shocked that Sebastian was still alive. He ordered his former guard to be beaten

to death with clubs and thrown in the sewer. Diocletian would not let Sebastian live for the

second time. After Saint Sebastian had died, his body was recovered by a woman named Lucina.

Saint Sebastian was buried in the catacombs shortly after. Around the year 367, his remains were

moved to a basilica in Rome. Most of his remains were removed and given to a group of monks

that were living in France. His skull was sent to Germany and is preserved in a glass case.

According to some early records, Saint Sebastian is said to have prevented a plague in Rome in
680. In most renaissance artwork, Saint Sebastian is depicted by being tied to a tree and being

full of arrows. This picture shows how Saint Sebastian is usually depicted in modern and

renaissance artwork. His second death is usually never shown in artwork. His canonization is

considered as a pre-congregation, which means he was canonized before the congregation of the

Saints. Saint Sebastian’s feast day is January 20th.

My Prayer:

Saint Sebastian, we know that you can protect us through

any battle that we are going through in our daily lives, we ask that

you can help anyone that is struggling with any sort of thing

whether it be depression, suicide, or any other internal struggle. I

hope that you can also pray for us while we are playing sports and

that we are always protected from serious injuries and other

miserable things that could occur on the playing field. We ask that

you may protect us in all that we do in our daily tasks. Amen.

In my opinion, we should pray to Saint Sebastian more than we do right now. We usually

only pray to him for our athletic needs or any other personal athletic desires, but we should pray

to him for our internal “battles” as well. I enjoy learning about Saint Sebastian and I hope that

historians can find out more information about him. Saint Sebastian looks over us and he

deserves to be prayed to whenever you are competing in a tournament, having internal struggles,

or just hoping to have a speedy recovery. I think that it is very cool that Saint Sebastian survived

being shot by arrows and had the faith and the courage to go back to Diocletian and criticize him

about the persecution of the Christians. I also find it cool how Saint Sebastian was said to

prevent a plague in Rome. I don’t think that I could ever have as much courage as Saint
Sebastian. Overall, Saint Sebastian is one of the coolest saints that I have ever researched and I

hope that I can research more about him in the future.