D Sector

Like many other acts of the early Roman Martyrs, the records of St. Sebastian's martyrdom seem to have perished in one of the great fires of the eternal city, and now only the fact that he was actually martyred and buried at Rome can be proved. He is thought to have been a native of Milan, but the story of his having been an officer in the imperial guard and a favorite of Diocletian, though secretly a Christian is no older than the fifth century but is probably based at least in part, on local oral tradition. Not until the Renaissance do we find St. Sebastian represented in art as a youth transfixed by arrows.

St. Sebastian is invoked especially against the plague on account of his having among other cities, protected Rome in 680, Milan in 1575 and Lisbon in 1599 from that dreadful disease. He is also the Patron Saint of archers and gunsmiths. The devil strains every nerve to secure the souls which belong to Christ. We should not grudge our toil in wresting them from Satan, and giving them back to God.