Feast: January 20
Martyrs of the Early Church
Commemoration in the Traditional Roman Rite
SAINT FABIAN – POPE AND MARTYR (†250)
Saint Fabian was a Roman layman when, upon the death of Pope Anterus in the year 236, he traveled to Rome with other faithful to witness the election of the new pontiff. According to the account of Eusebius of Caesarea, as the clergy deliberated, a dove descended from heaven and alighted on Fabian’s head, recalling the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Our Lord at His baptism. This divine sign led to Fabian’s unanimous election to the papacy, though he was a simple layman at the time.
As Bishop of Rome, Fabian governed the Church with great prudence and apostolic zeal for fourteen years, during a time of growing persecution under the Roman emperors. He organized the Church in Rome with clear ecclesiastical structure, dividing the city into seven regions, each overseen by a deacon, and is credited with setting in order the cemeteries and the records of the martyrs—a foundational contribution to the Church’s memory of its saints.
During the Decian persecution, Pope Fabian was arrested and refused to renounce the Faith or offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. He was beheaded in the year 250, and buried in the Catacomb of Callixtus. His tomb bore the inscription: “Fabian, bishop and martyr.” His death marked him as one of the earliest popes to be venerated as a martyr and saint.
“Fabian was an incomparable man, the glory of whose death corresponded with the purity and holiness of his life.” — St. Cyprian of Carthage
SAINT SEBASTIAN – SOLDIER AND MARTYR (†c. 288)
Saint Sebastian was born in Narbonne, in Gaul, but raised in Milan, Italy. He became a soldier in the Roman army under Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who were then fierce persecutors of the Church. Unknown to them, Sebastian was a Christian in secret, using his position to aid imprisoned Christians and strengthen them in their trials. He is especially noted for bringing comfort and courage to the martyrs Marcus and Marcellian and converting many by his example, including Roman officials and even the jailer’s family.
When his Christianity was discovered, the emperor ordered that Sebastian be shot to death by archers. He was tied to a tree and his body pierced with arrows, left for dead. But the holy widow Irene of Rome, coming to bury him, found him still alive, and secretly nursed him back to health.
Instead of fleeing, Sebastian boldly returned to the emperor and reproached him for his cruelty and idolatry. The enraged Diocletian ordered him to be beaten to death with clubs, and his body thrown into the Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer of Rome. Christians recovered his body and buried him in the catacomb of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way, which became a site of early pilgrimage.
He was later invoked as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, especially during plagues, because of the association of his suffering with the imagery of divine arrows (cf. Psalm 91:5–6).
✠ DEVOTIONAL REFLECTION
The feast of Saints Fabian and Sebastian unites the shepherd and the soldier, both martyred for their fidelity to Christ. In Fabian, we see the courageous leadership of the Church’s visible head, guiding and suffering for the flock. In Sebastian, the heroism of the laity, bearing witness in the very midst of a hostile world.
Their joint commemoration is ancient and marks the reverence of the early Church for her martyrs, whose blood is, as Tertullian famously said, “the seed of Christians.”
✠ PRAYER (from the Roman Missal – January 20)
Collect
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who celebrate the heavenly birthday of Thy holy Martyrs Fabian and Sebastian may, by their intercession, be delivered from all evils that threaten us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ…