Sebastian of Milan

Sebastian (Latin, Sebastianus; Narbonne, Gaul, Roman Empire, 256-Rome, Roman Empire, 288) was a military tribune of the Roman army, saint and martyr revered by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church who lived in the 3rd century.

Born in Narbo Martius (today Narbona) in Gaul, Sebastian was a soldier and received the support of the emperors Diocletian and Maximinus, who appointed him centurion and head of the cohort, ignoring his religion. During Diocletian's persecution, he was executed for having supported his co-religionists.

Sebastián remains a well-known saint, especially in sport, and has also historically been invoked to fight the plague and epidemics in general.

In the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, San Sebastián is the holder of numerous patronages. His liturgical feast is January 20.

In the West, it has been the subject of numerous artistic representations since the Renaissance, some of them with homoerotic content.

Hagiography

San Sebastian martyrdom painted in Munich.

Martirio de San Sebastian painted by Sebastián Muñoz in 1687.

He was born in Narbonne (then part of the Roman Empire, now France) in 255, but was educated in Milan. He complied with military discipline, but did not participate in pagan sacrifices, considering them idolatry. As a Christian, he exercised the apostolate among his companions, visiting and encouraging other Christians imprisoned because of his religion. He ended up being discovered and denounced to the Emperor Maximian (co-ruler of the empire with Diocletian), who forced him to choose between his military status and his religious faith.

Sebastian chose to remain a Christian. Disappointed, the emperor threatened him with death, but Sebastian remained firm in his faith. Enraged, he sentenced him to die. The emperor's soldiers took him to the stadium, stripped him naked, tied him to a post and showered him with arrows, leaving him for dead. However, his friends came up and, seeing him still alive, took him home. of a Roman Christian noblewoman, Saint Irene —widow of the martyred official Saint Castulus—, who kept him hidden and healed his wounds, until he was restored.

His friends advised him to stay away from Rome, but Sebastian flatly refused. He appeared before a baffled emperor, since he was considered dead, and strongly reproached him for his conduct for persecuting Christians. Maximian ordered him to be flogged to death, and this time the soldiers accomplished the mission without mistakes, throwing his body into a quagmire. The Christians picked him up and buried him on the Appian Way, in the famous catacomb that bears the name of Saint Sebastian. He died in the year 288.

Veneration

The veneration of Saint Sebastian is very old and widespread. He is invoked against the plague and against the enemies of religion, and is also called & # 34; the Christian Apollo & # 34;, since he is one of the saints most reproduced by art in general.

The first persecuted Christians from Rome reached the Mediterranean islands and brought their devotion to the martyr Sebastian with their Christian faith.

His feast is celebrated on January 20 and has always been linked to that of Saint Fabian, on the feast of the Holy Martyrs.

Representations

Saint Sebastian is possibly one of the most represented saints of the Catholic Church. The art world is frequently nourished with pictographic works and sculptures that enhance the acceptance of his destiny and redemption by angels.

In the representations of the first millennium, he wears the military cloak as befits his position, and is always beardless. During the Gothic, he appears in chain armor in the fashion of the time, but soon he appears in the rich costume of the noble palatines of the time and usually with a beard. From that moment it is much more common to represent him half-naked at the time of being fired upon. The ancient attribute is the flower crown in hand. The personal attribute, since the Middle Ages, is an arrow and the bow in his hands.

Since the fifteenth century, artists have preferred to present him naked, young and beardless, with his hands tied to the trunk of a tree behind him and offering his torso to the executioner's arrows. Many artists have represented it; Among them, it is worth noting the sculpture by Alonso Berruguete preserved in the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid and the painting by El Greco The martyrdom of San Sebastián, one of the most realistic works of this painter, which is in the Cathedral Museum of Palencia.

Other types of representations

Photographer Carl Fischer took the photo "The Passion of Muhammed Ali" for the cover of the Esquire magazine of April 1968. In it, Muhammad Ali, imitating the classic images of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, appears half-naked in his boxer pants and his hands behind him, pierced by five arrows piercing his torso. The image represented the injustice of the US State and the integrity with which the famous black boxer defended his convictions, when he was imprisoned and deprived of the world title he held for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War. It is currently one of the most emblematic magazine covers of that decade.

In 1976, British filmmaker Derek Jarman recreated the life and martyrdom of the saint in the film Sebastiane.

Homoeroticism

Since at least the 19th century, the figure of Saint Sebastian has been venerated by people belonging to sexual minorities. Homosexual writers such as Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust or Yukio Mishima wrote about his martyrdom, identifying with his pariah status. Several religious images depicting Saint Sebastian lend symbolism to his strong physique, the arrows piercing his body, and the glowering, pained countenance that has intrigued artists for centuries.

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