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Sebastian (20.1.) According to Ambrose, Sebastian was born in Milan and legend has it that he was an officer of Dioclezian’s imperial guard. Because of his christian faith the Emperor himself had him condemned to death through shooting by arrows but he was miraculously healed by a christian widow. As he remained firm in his beliefs he was beaten to death. We are led to believe that his burial place is at the entrance of the Cimitero ad catacumbas on the Via Appia in Rome and took place in the year 354. Since 1250 his reliquiae have been kept in the Franciscan convent of Hagenau in Alsace and in the convent of Ebersberg in Bavaria. Because of his martyrdom with arrows he was invoked as protector against the plague in the late Middle Ages. Sebastian is the patron saint of the dying, war invalids, gunsmiths; stone masons, gardners, tanners, vase makers; he is the protector of wells; he is invoked by the wounded and protects against the plague, epidemics, epilepsy and protects animals against sickness.