Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/January 20

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Pope Saint Fabian and Saint Sebastian were both roman Saints, who lived in the third century.

Pope Saint Fabian was pope, or bishop of Rome, from January 236 to January 20, 250, succeeding Pope Anterus. Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. Vi. 29) relates how the Christians, having assembled in Rome to elect a new bishop, saw a dove alight upon the head of Fabian, a layman and stranger to the city, who was thus marked out for this dignity, and was at once proclaimed bishop by acclamation, although there were several famous men among the candidates for the vacant position.He is said to have baptized the emperor Philip, to have improved the organization of the church in Rome, and to have appointed officials to register the deeds of the martyrs. According to "later accounts" he sent out the "apostles to the Gauls" to Christianize Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities.
Attributes: Book and a sword
Patronage:
Prayer:Pope Saint Fabian, it's so easy to believe that peace means a life without conflict or suffering. Help us to see that the only true peace is the peace Christ brings. Never let us as a Church or as individual Christians choose to deny our beliefs simply to avoid an unpleasant situation. Amen

Saint Sebastian (died 287) was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have been killed while the Roman emperor Diocletian engaged in the persecution of Christians in the 3rd century.Sebastian was a man of Gallia Narbonensis who was taught in Milan and appointed as a captain of the Praetorian Guard under Diocletian and Maximian, who were unaware that he was a Christian. His aura cured a woman of her muteness, and the miracle instantly converted seventy-eight people. Diocletian reproached Sebastian for supposed betrayal. On the emperor's command, the archers shot at Sebastian till he was as full of arrows, leaving him there for dead. The widow of St. Castulus, St. Irene of Rome, went to retrieve his body to bury it, and found he was still alive. She brought him back to her house and nursed him back to health. When he made the sign of the cross on the head of a deaf and blind girl, she could see and hear. Sebastian then stood on a step and harangued Diocletian as he passed by; the emperor had him beaten to death and his body thrown in a privy.
Attributes: tied to a post and shot with arrows
Patronage: Soldiers, plagues, arrows, athletes;(unofficial): youth
Prayer: