Saint of the Day, January 20

Saint Fabian was a Roman layman, a farmer from the countryside outside the city, who happened to come into Rome in January of the year 236, when the clergy and people were gathered to choose a successor to Pope Saint Anterus. According to the historian Eusebius, while the assembly considered the various distinguished candidates, a dove suddenly descended from above and rested upon Fabian's head — a sign so plainly recalling the Spirit's descent upon the Lord at the Jordan that the people acclaimed him bishop of Rome by unanimous voice.

Saint Sebastian (d. c. 288) was, by ancient tradition, an officer in the Praetorian Guard who used his rank to encourage imprisoned Christians until his own faith was denounced to the emperor Diocletian. Condemned to be shot with arrows, he survived the execution, recovered at the home of the widow Irene, and confronted the emperor again in the streets of Rome — this time being beaten to death. The arrows of his first martyrdom became the symbol of plague, and his intercession was invoked across Europe through every recurrence of the Black Death. The basilica raised over his catacomb tomb is among the seven pilgrim churches of Rome.