JANUARY 20, 2026 – ST. SEBASTIAN, MARTYR.

• St. Fabian (250). Martyr, Pope. (Current, Traditional)
• St. Sebastian (288). Martyr, Patron or Patroness. Patron of soldiers, archers, & athletes. (Current, Traditional)

ST. SEBASTIAN was an officer in the Roman army, esteemed even by the heathen as a good soldier, and honored by the Church ever since as a champion of Jesus Christ. Born at Narbonne, Sebastian came to Rome about the year 284, and entered the lists with the powers of evil. He found the twin brothers, Marcus and Marcellinus, in prison for the faith, and when they were near yielding to the entreaties of their relatives, encouraged them to despise flesh and blood, and to die for Christ. God confirmed his words by miracle; light shone around him while he spoke; he cured the sick by his prayers; and in this divine strength he led multitudes to the faith, and among them the Prefect of Rome, with his son Tiburtius. He saw his disciples die before him, and one of them came back from heaven to tell him his own end was near. It was in a contest of fervor and charity that St. Sebastian found the occasion of martyrdom. The Prefect of Rome, after his conversion, retired to his estates in Campania, and took a great number of his fellow-converts with him to this place of safety. It was a question whether Polycarp the priest, or St. Sebastian should accompany the neophytes. Each was eager to stay and face the danger at Rome, and at last the Pope decided that the Roman Church could not spare the services of Sebastian. He continued to labor at the post of danger till he was betrayed by a false disciple. He was led before Diocletian, and, at the emperor’s command, pierced with arrows and left for dead.

But God raised him up again, and of his own accord he went before the emperor, and conjured him to stay the persecution of the Church. Again sentenced, he was at last beaten to death by clubs, and crowned his labors by the merit of a double martyrdom.

REFLECTION: Your ordinary occupations will give you opportunities of laboring for the faith. Ask help from St. Sebastian He was not a priest or a religious, but a soldier.

WORD OF THE DAY

ACTUAL SIN. Any thought, word, deed, or omission contrary to God’s eternal law. All actual sins are classified on the basis of this division, where sinful thoughts are essentially desires, the words may either be spoken or otherwise articulated, the deeds involve some external manifestation, and omissions are failures to do what should have been done by a person in a given set of circumstances.

Sin is a human act that presumes three elements: objective malice in the action performed, or at least the person considers it wrong; actual advertence of mind by which the sinner is at least confusedly aware of the malice of his conduct; and consent of the will, which formally constitutes actual sin and without which the sin is said to be only material.

Every sin is a genuine offense against God. There is consequently no such thing as merely philosophical sin, which offends against right reason but is not at the same time a deliberate transgression of the divine law. Sin is theological by its very nature.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

Christmastide Meditations

Daily devotional meditations on the Birth of Our Savior and Christmastide: The Arrival in Egypt – Christmas Meditation Day 27 (Jan 20)

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