Encyclopedia > Saint Sebastian

  Article Content

Sebastian

Redirected from Saint Sebastian


St Sebastian, by Mantegna
St Sebastian was a Christian saint and martyr, who died under the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the third century.

According to his apocryphal Acts, attributed to St Ambrose of Milan, 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. When he treated Christian prisoners due for martyrdom kindly, Diocletian reproached him for his supposed ingratitude and ordered him executed by arrows.

This method of execution made Sebastian a favourite for paintings. Sebastian is usually depicted in art as a somewhat effete youth tied to a stake and transfixed by several arrows. Sebastian was formerly one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers until that cult was suppressed in the reform of the Roman Catholic liturgy in 1969. Sebastian's own feast day is January 20.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Holtsville, New York

... the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 23.9% from 45 to 64, and 6.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 38.1 ms