Saint Fabian (250) and Saint Sebastian (288)

Saint Fabian was the twenty-first Pope, and a martyr. The first thirty one Popes of the Catholic Church were martyred for the Faith that Catholics now possess.

Saint Sebastian was a noble young soldier, one of the earliest martyrs under the cruel Emperor Diocletian, whose reign lasted from 284 to 305. Saint Sebastian was first shot with arrows, and later scourged to death. Saints Fabian and Sebastian are mentioned together in the Litany of the Saints.

Saints Fabian and Sebastian, by an anonymous artist of the Northern Renaissance (Saint Petersburg, Hermitage)