SEBASTIAN, SAINT, a very celebrated martyr of the early church, whose memory bs venerated in both brn»ehes of the church, east as well as west (although the scene of his martyrdom was the city of Rome), and whose story has formed one of the most popu lar themes of Christian artists from the earliest times. His history is contained in the so-called acts of his martyrdom, which, although partaking of the legendary tone, aro regarded as authentic, not only by Baronius and the Bollandists, hut also by Tillemont and others of the more stringently critical schools of ecclesiastical history. Sebastian, according to this narrative, was born at Narbonne and educated at Milan. Although Christian, he entered the Roman army, without, however, revealing his religion, and with the view of being enabled, by his position, to assist and protect the Christians in the persecution.. In this way he supported and comforted many of the martyrs in Rome; and he even converted Nicostratus. the keeper of the prison in which the martyrs were confined, and his wife, Zoe, to whom he miraculously restored the use of he, speech', after she had been dumb for six years. Still unrecognized as a Christian, Sebas tian rose to high favor under Diocletian, while at the same time the grateful pontiff, Caius, named him "Defender of the Church." At length came the time for his open
profession of his faith. Diocletian used every effort to, induce hint to renounce the Christian creed, but in vain; and in the end he was condemned to be put to death by a troop of Mauritanian archers, who transfixed him with numberless arrows, and left him ac dead. But a Christian lady, Irene, finding that life was not extinct, had the body removed to her house, where life was restored; and although the Christian community desired to conceal his recovery, Sebastian again appeared in public before the emperor, to profess his faith in Christianity. Diocletian condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs in the amphitheater; and his body was flung into one of the sewers of the city, in which it was diseovered, according to the Acts of Martyrdom, by means. of an apparition, and carried by a Christian lady, Lucina, to the catacomb, which is still called by his name. The date of his martyrdom was January 20, 288. By the Greeks the feast is held on the 20th of December. The festival was celebrated with great solem nity in Milan as early as the time of St. Ambrose; and it was observed in the African church in the 4th century. There is another saint of the same name, who is said to have suffered martyrdom in Armenia.