Iacobus de Voragine: LEGENDA AUREA

Sebastianus vir Christianissimus, Narbonensis genere, civis Mediolanensis Diocletiano et Maximiano imperatoribus adeo carus erat, ut principatum ei primae cohortis traderent et suo aspectui iuberent semper adstare. Hic militarem chlamidem ad hoc tantum ferebat, ut Christianorum animas, quas in tormentis videbat deficere, confortaret. Dum autem praeclarissimi viri Marcellinus et Marcus gemini fratres pro fide Christi decollari deberent, ad eos parentes adveniunt, ut ipsorum animos a suo proposito revocarent.

Sebastian, a most Christian man, of Narbonese stock, a citizen of Mediolanum, was so dear to the emperors Diocletian and Maximian that they entrusted to him the command of the first cohort and ordered him always to stand in their presence. He wore the military chlamys for this purpose only: to strengthen the souls of the Christians, whom he saw failing in torments. But when the most illustrious men Marcellinus and Marcus, twin brothers, were to be beheaded for the faith of Christ, their parents came to them, to recall their minds from their resolve.

Advenit ergo mater et soluto capite scissisque vestibus uberibusque ostensis aiebat: "O perdulces filii, circumdat me inaudita miseria et intolerabilis luctus. Heu me miseram, amitto filios meos ad mortem ultro tendentes. Quos si mihi hostes auferrent, per media sequerer bella raptores, si violenta iudicia concluderent carcere, irrumperem moritura.

Therefore the mother arrived, and with hair unbound, her garments torn, and her breasts displayed, she was saying: "O most-sweet sons, unheard-of misery and intolerable lament surrounds me. Alas, wretched me, I am losing my sons, of their own accord hastening to death. If enemies were carrying you off from me, I would follow the abductors through the midst of wars; if violent judgments were shutting you up in prison, I would burst in, ready to die.

Novum hoc pereundi genus est, in quo carnifex rogatur, ut feriat; vita optatur, ut pereat; mors invitatur, ut veniat. Novus hic luctus, nova misera, in qua natorum iuventus sponte amittitur et parentum miseranda cogitur senectus, ut vivat." Haec dicente matre, pater senior manibus adducitur servorum et, capite adsperso pulvere, huiusmodi voces dabat ad caelum: "Ad mortem ultro proficiscentibus filiis valedicturus adveni, ut, quae meae sepulturae paraveram, filiorum sepulturis infelix expendam. O filii mei, baculus senectutis et geminum meorum viscerum lumen, cur sic mortem diligitis!

"This is a new kind of perishing, in which the executioner is entreated to strike; life is desired, in order that it may perish; death is invited, that it may come. This is a new grief, a new misery, in which the youth of the children is voluntarily lost, and the pitiable old age of the parents is compelled to live." While the mother was saying these things, the elder father is led in by the hands of the servants and, his head sprinkled with dust, he was uttering words of this sort to heaven: "I have come to bid farewell to my sons as they set out of their own accord to death, so that what I had prepared for my own burial I, unhappy, may expend upon the burials of my sons. O my sons, staff of my old age and the twin light of my inmost vitals, why do you so love death!"

Venite hic, iuvenes, flete super iuvenes sponte pereuntes. Venite huc, senes et mecum super filios meos plangite, accedite huc, patres, et prohibete, ne talia patiamini. Deficite plorando, oculi mei, ne videam filios meos gladio caedi."

Come here, youths, weep over youths perishing of their own accord. Come here, old men, and lament with me over my sons; come near, fathers, and forbid it, so that you not suffer such things. Fail in weeping, my eyes, lest I see my sons cut down by the sword."

Haec dicente patre adveniunt coniuges adspectibus eorum proprios filios offerentes atque eiulando clamantes: "Quibus nos dimittitis! Qui erunt horum infantium domini! Quis vestras largas dividet possessiones!Heu quam ferrea pectora, quia parentes despicitis, amicos respuitis, uxores abicitis, filios abdicatis et vos carnificibus spontaneos exhibetis." Inter hoc autem coeperunt virorum corda mollescere.

As the father was saying these things, the wives arrive, offering their own sons to their sight and, wailing, crying out: "To whom are you dismissing us! Who will be the masters of these infants! Who will divide your large possessions!Alas how iron your hearts, because you despise your parents, you spurn friends, you cast away wives, you abdicate your sons, and you present yourselves spontaneously to the executioners." Meanwhile, amid this, the hearts of the men began to soften.

Tunc sanctus Sebastianus, qui ibi aderat, erumpens in medium dixit: "O fortissimi milites Christi, nolite per misera blandimenta coronam deponere sempiternam." Sed parentibus dixit: "Nolite timere, non separabuntur a vobis, sed vadunt in caelum vobis parare sidereas mansiones. Nam ab initio mundi haec vita in se sperantes fefellit, se exspectantes decepit, de se praesumentes irrisit et ita nullum omnino certum reddidit, ut omnibus probetur esse mentita. Vita haec admonet furem, ut rapiat, iracundum, ut saeviat, mendacem, ut fallat.

Then Saint Sebastian, who was present there, bursting forth into the midst said: "O most valiant soldiers of Christ, do not lay down the everlasting crown because of wretched blandishments." But to the parents he said: "Do not be afraid; they will not be separated from you, but they go into heaven to prepare for you sidereal mansions. For from the beginning of the world this life has beguiled those hoping in itself, has deceived those expecting from it, has mocked those presuming upon it, and has made nothing at all certain, so that to all it is proven to have been mendacious. This life admonishes the thief to commit rapine, the irascible to be savage, the liar to deceive.

Ipsa imperat crimina, iubet facinora, suadet iniusta.

This very life itself commands crimes, bids deeds of wickedness, urges injustices.

Haec autem persecutio, quam hic patimur, hodie excandescit et cras evanescit, hodie exardescit et cras refrigescit, sub una hora inducitur et sub una hora excluditur. Dolor autem aeternus renovatur, ut saeviat, augmentatur, ut exurat, inflammatur, ut puniat. In amore ergo martyrii nostros iam suscitemus affectus.

But this persecution, which we suffer here, today grows incandescent and tomorrow evanesces, today flares up and tomorrow grows cold; within a single hour it is induced and within a single hour it is excluded. But eternal pain is renewed, so that it may rage, is augmented so that it may burn up, is inflamed so that it may punish. Therefore, in love of martyrdom let us now rouse our affections.

Ibi enim diabolus se vincere existimat, qui, dum capit, captus est, dum tenet, tentus est, dum vincit, victus est, et dum torquer, torquetur, dum iugulat, occisus est, et dum insultat, irrisus est."

For there indeed the devil thinks that he is winning, who, while he seizes, has been seized, while he holds, has been held, while he conquers, has been vanquished, and while he tortures, he is tortured, while he slaughters, has been slain, and while he insults, has been derided."

Igitur dum beatus Sebastianus haec ex ore proferret, subito per unam fere horam a splendore nimio de caelo descendente illuminatus est et sub illo splendore pallio candidissimo amictus et ab angelis septem clarissimis circumdatus. Iuvenis etiam apparuit iuxta eum dans ei pacem et dicens: "Tu semper mecum eris."

Therefore, while blessed Sebastian was uttering these things from his mouth, suddenly, for almost one hour, he was illuminated by an exceedingly great splendor descending from heaven, and beneath that splendor he was clothed with a most white mantle and surrounded by seven most bright angels. A youth also appeared beside him, giving him peace and saying: "You will always be with me."

Cum autem beatus Sebastianus haec et his similia praedicaret, Zoe, uxor Nicostrati, in cuius domo sancti custodiebantur, quae loquelam amiserat, pedibus eius provoluta nutibus veniam postulabat. Tunc Sebastianus ait: "Si ego Christi servus sum et si vera sunt omnia, quae ex ore meo haec mulier audivit et credidit, aperiat os eius, qui aperuit os Zachariae prophetae sui. " Ad hanc vocem mulier exclamavit: "Benedictus sermo erit tui et benedicti, qui omnibus, quae locutus es, credunt.

But when blessed Sebastian was preaching these things and similar things, Zoe, the wife of Nicostratus, in whose house the saints were being kept in custody, who had lost her faculty of speech, having flung herself prostrate at his feet, with nods was petitioning for pardon. Then Sebastian said: "If I am a servant of Christ, and if all things are true which from my mouth this woman has heard and believed, let Him open her mouth who opened the mouth of Zechariah His prophet. " At this word the woman cried out: "Blessed shall be your sermon, and blessed are they who believe all the things which you have spoken."

Vidi enim angelum librum tenentem ante te,ubi omnia, quae dixisti, scripta erant."

For I saw an angel holding a book before you,where all the things that you said had been written."

Vir autem eius hoc audiens procidit ad pedes sancti Sebastiani sibi postulans indulgeri statimque absolvens martyres rogabat, ut liben abirent. Qui dixerunt nullatenus se deserturos victoriam, quam cepissent. Tantam igitur gratiam et virtutem verbi sancti Sebastiani contulerat, quod non solum Marcellinum et Marcum in martyrii constantia roboravit, sed etiam patrem eorum nomine Tranquillinum et matrem cum multis aliis ad fidem convertit, quos omnes Policarpus presbyter baptizavit.

But her husband, hearing this, fell at the feet of Saint Sebastian, begging that pardon be granted to him; and immediately releasing them, he was asking the martyrs to depart freely. They said that by no means would they desert the victory which they had seized. Therefore so great a grace and power of the word had been bestowed upon Saint Sebastian, that he not only strengthened Marcellinus and Marcus in the constancy of martyrdom, but also converted their father by name Tranquillinus and their mother, together with many others, to the faith, all of whom the presbyter Polycarpus baptized.

Tranquillinus autem morbo gravissimo laborans mox, ut baptizatus est, sanitatem recepit.

Tranquillinus, however, suffering from a most grave malady, soon, upon being baptized, recovered health.

Praefectus autem urbis Romae, qui et ipse morbo gravissimo laborabat, rogavit Tranquillinum, ut ad se adduceret eum, qui sibi sanitatem dederat. Cum ergo ad eum venissem Policarpus presbyter et Sebastianus et ipse eos rogaret, ut etiam sanitatem reciperet, dixit ei Sebastianus, ut prius idola abnegaret et confringendi ea sibi potestatem traderet et sic sanitatem reciperet. Cui cum Chromatius praefectus diceret, quod servi sui hoc facerent et non ipse, dixit Sebastianus: "Timidi deos suos confringere formidant, sed et si diabolus hac occasione eos laederet, dicerent eos infideles esse ob hoc laesos, quod deos suos confringerent."

But the Prefect of the City of Rome, who was himself also suffering from a very grave disease, asked Tranquillinus to bring to him the one who had given him health. Therefore, when the presbyter Polycarpus and Sebastian had come to him, and he himself was asking them that he too might receive health, Sebastian said to him to first renounce the idols and to hand over to him the power to break them, and thus he would receive health. When Chromatius the prefect said to this that his servants would do this and not he himself, Sebastian said: "The timid dread to break their gods; and even if the devil on this occasion should injure them, they would say that they were injured as infidels on this account, because they were breaking their gods."

Sicque Policarpus et Sebastianus accincti plus quam CC idola confregerunt, Post hoc autem dixerunt Chromatio: "Cum nobis idola confringentibus sanitatem recipere non debuisti nec recepisti, certum est, quia aut infidelitatem nondum abiecisti aut aliqua idola reservasti." Tunc indicavit se habere thalamum, in quo erat omnis disciplina stellarum, pro quo pater suus plus quam ducenta pondera auri expenderat et per quem futura omnia praevidebat. Cui Sebastianus: "Quamdiu hoc integrum habueris, te ipsum integrum non habebis." Cumque ad hoc ille assentiret, Tiburtius, eius filius, iuvenis egregius dixit: "Non patiar opus destrui tam praeclarum, sed ne paternae sanitati videar esse contrarius, duo clibani accendantur, ut, si destructo opere pater meus sanitatem non receperit, ambo viri concrementur." Cui Sebastianus: "Sic fiat, ut locutus es."

And so Polycarp and Sebastian, girded, broke more than 200 idols, After this, however, they said to Chromatius: "Since, with us breaking the idols, you ought not to have received health nor did you receive it, it is certain that either you have not yet cast away infidelity or you have reserved some idols." Then he indicated that he had a chamber in which was the whole discipline of the stars, for which his father had expended more than two hundred weights of gold, and by which he foresaw all things to come. To him Sebastian: "So long as you have this intact, you will not have yourself intact." And when he assented to this, Tiburtius, his son, a distinguished youth, said: "I will not allow so very preeminent a work to be destroyed; but lest I seem to be contrary to my father’s health, let two ovens be kindled, so that, if, with the work destroyed, my father does not receive health, both men be burned up." To whom Sebastian: "So let it be done, as you have spoken."

Dum igitur illa confringerentur, angelus praefecto apparuit et sibi a Domino Iesu sanitatem redditam nuntiavit statimque sanus effectus cucurrit post eum, ut eius pedes oscularetur. Qui cum prohibuit ex eo, quod baptismum nondum receperat, sicque ipse et Tiburtius filius eius et mille CCCC de eius familia baptizati sunt.

While therefore those things were being broken, an angel appeared to the prefect and announced to him that health had been restored to him by the Lord Jesus; and immediately, made sound, he ran after him to kiss his feet. But he forbade it, on the ground that he had not yet received baptism; and thus he himself and Tiburtius his son and 1,400 of his household were baptized.

Zoe autem ab infidelibus tenta et diu cruciata emisit spiritum. Quod cum audiisset Tranquillinus, proripuit et dixit: "Feminae nos ad coronam praecedunt. Ad quid vivimus!" Ipse autem post paucos dies lapidatus est.

But Zoe, having been seized by the infidels and long tortured, gave up the spirit. When Tranquillinus heard this, he rushed out and said: "Women precede us to the crown. To what end do we live!" Moreover, he himself after a few days was stoned.

Sanctus autem Tiburtius super prunas allatas iubetur aut incensum diis imponere aut super istas nudis plantis incedere. Qui sibi signum crucis faciens constanter super ipsas nudis plantis ingressus est dicens: "Videtur mihi, quod super roseos flores incedam in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Chnsti." Cui Fabianus praefectus dixit: "Quis ignorat magicam artem Christum vos docuisse!"

But Saint Tiburtius is ordered, over coals having been brought in, either to place incense upon the gods or to walk upon these with bare soles. He, making for himself the sign of the cross, steadfastly stepped upon them with bare soles, saying: "It seems to me that I am walking over rosy flowers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." To him Prefect Fabian said: "Who is ignorant that Christ has taught you the magic art!"

Cui Tiburtius: "Obmutesce, infelix, quia non es dignus nomen tam sanctum et tam mellifluum nominare." Tunc iratus praefectus iussit eum decollari. Marcellianus autem et Marcus stipiti affiguntur, cumque fuissent affixi, psallentes dicebant: "Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum habitare fratres in unum." Quibus praefectus: "Infelices, deponite amentiam et vos ipsos liberate." Cui illi: "Numquam tam bene epulati sumus. Utinam tamdiu sic nos esse permittas, quamdiu corporis tegimur indumento." Tunc praefectus iussit eos lanceis per latera transverberari, et sic martyrium consummaverunt.

To this Tiburtius: "Be silent, wretch, for you are not worthy to name a name so holy and so mellifluous." Then the angry prefect ordered him to be beheaded. But Marcellianus and Marcus are fastened to a stake, and when they had been affixed, psalm-singing they kept saying: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together as one." To whom the prefect: "Unhappy men, lay aside madness and free yourselves." To whom they: "Never have we feasted so well. Would that you would permit us to be thus as long as we are clothed with the garment of the body." Then the prefect ordered them to be transfixed with lances through the sides, and thus they consummated their martyrdom.

Post hoc praefectus Diocletiano imperatori de Sebastiano suggessit. Quem ad se vocans dixit: "Ego te inter primos in palatio meo semper habui et tu contra salutem meam et deorum iniuriam hactenus latuisti." Cui Sebastianus: "Pro salute tua Christum semper colui et pro statu Romani imperii Deum, qui in caelis est, semper adoravi." Tunc Diocletianus iussit eum in medium campum ligari et a militibus sagittari, qui ita eum sagittis impleverunt, ut quasi hericius videretur, et aestimantes illum mortuum abierunt. Qui intra paucos dies liberatus stans super gradum palatii imperatores venientes de malis, quae Christianis inferebant, dure redarguit.

After this the prefect informed Emperor Diocletian about Sebastian. Calling him to himself he said: "I have always held you among the foremost in my palace, and you have thus far kept hidden against my safety and to the injury of the gods." To whom Sebastian: "For your safety I have always worshiped Christ, and for the status of the Roman empire I have always adored God who is in the heavens." Then Diocletian ordered him to be bound in the middle of a field and to be shot by the soldiers with arrows, who so filled him with arrows that he seemed like a hedgehog; and thinking him dead, they went away. He, within a few days, having been freed, standing upon the step of the palace, sternly reproved the emperors as they were coming, concerning the evils which they were inflicting upon Christians.

Dixerunt imperatores: "Istene est Sebastianus, quem diu sagittis interfici iusseramus!" Cui Sebastianus: "Ad hoc me Dominus resuscitare dignatus est, ut conveniam vos et redarguam vos de malis, quae Christi famulis irrogatis." Tunc imperator tamdiu eum fustigari iussit, donec spiritum exhalaret. Fecitque corpus eius in cloacam proici, ne a Christianis pro martyre coleretur. Sanctus autem Sebastianus sequente nocte sanctae Luciae apparuit et corpus eius sibi revelavit et, ut iuxta vestigia apostolorum illud sepeliret, praecepit.

The emperors said: "Is this Sebastian, whom we had for a long time ordered to be killed with arrows!" To whom Sebastianus: "For this the Lord has deigned to re-raise me, that I may meet you and rebuke you for the evils which you inflict upon the servants of Christ." Then the emperor ordered him to be cudgelled until he exhaled his spirit. And he had his body cast into a sewer, lest it be honored by the Christians as a martyr. But Saint Sebastian, on the following night, appeared to Saint Lucy and revealed to her his body, and he commanded that she bury it near the footsteps of the Apostles.

Quod et factum est. Passus autem sub Diocletiano et Maximiano imperatoribus, qui coeperunt circa annos Domini CCLXXXVII. [. . .]

And so it was done. Moreover, he suffered under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, whose reign began around the year of the Lord 287. [. . .]