St. Sebastian

I’m not sure when I first became aware of St. Sebastian, but I wanted to take his name for my confirmation.

My father being the tight-ass that he was (with other people’s lives anyway) forbade that and I wound up with Thomas instead (and to make matters worse it was after Thomas Aquinas and not the doubter).

He’s always been one of my favorite saints iconographically: Stripped naked, tied to a tree, and shot full of arrows. What’s not to like?

Here’s my favorite picture of St. Sebastian. It’s painted by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi a.k.a. Il Sodoma.

That means ‘the sodomite’; those crazy Italians were always passing out the nicknames. (My grandmother’s nickname was Cecina. That means ‘the little one.’ She wasn’t.)

Here’s another site that has all the pictures you’ll ever need of St. Sebastian.

http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/

Sometimes the image of Sebastian shot full of arrows is referred to as his “martyrdom,” but he survived the arrows and was succored by St. Irene and other holy women. He was later beaten to death by rods.

Ok, first pierced by arrows, then beaten by rods. Am I the only one getting this? I wonder if my father knew?