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

St Sebastian tended by Saint Irene, Georges de La Tour c 1645

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Sebastian

Saint Sebastian (traditionally died January 20, 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. more...

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He is commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post and shot with arrows.

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 place name 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 betrayal, and he was sentenced to death by being shot full of arrows by the Mauretanian archers. Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him, but he was then taken and beaten to death. His body was thrown in a sewer.

Depictions in art and literature

The earliest representation of St Sebastian is a mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy) dated between 527 and 565. The right lateral wall of the basilica contains large mosaics representing a procession of 26 Martyrs, led by Saint Martin and including Saint Sebastian. The Martyrs are represented in Byzantine style, lacking any individuality, and have all identical expressions. Another representation is in Acireale(Italy) in the "Basilica di San Sebastiano" with many paints by Pietro Paolo Vasta

Another early representation is in a mosaic in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli (Rome, Italy), which probably belongs to the year 682, shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow"