The New Student's Reference Work/Sebastian, St.

Sebastian (sḗ-băs′chan), St., a martyr of the early church, was a native of Narbonne. Under Diocletian he became a captain of the prætorian guard and secretly a Christian. It came to the ears of Diocletian that Sebastian encouraged those who were being led out to death for being Christians; so the emperor had his captain tied to a stake and shot by archers. But they did not wholly kill him; a pious woman named Irene took him away and tended his wounds. As soon as he recovered, Sebastian boldly faced the tyrant and upbraided him for his cruelty. Diocletian then ordered him to be beaten to death with rods (about 288 A. D.). His first martyrdom — a young and handsome soldier bristling with arrows — was a favorite subject for the Italian religious painters, as Mantegna, Veronese and Domenichino.