Saints Sebastian and Fabian

Today Sebastian and Fabian are remembered together, and Fabian’s story begins with the most unlikely scene you could imagine for a papal election. It’s the year 236. The Christians of Rome had gathered to choose the new bishop and were going through the names of the most noble and distinguished figures. Fabian was a farmer who just happened to be in the city. While they were discussing, a dove came down and landed on his head. Those watching remembered the scene from the Gospel, the Spirit descending on the Savior — and they elected him unanimously. Eusebius tells the story, and it remains one of the most surprising pages in the history of the Church: power landing on someone who wasn’t even on the list. He governed for fourteen years, and they were years of truce in the persecutions. He used them to organize: he divided Rome into seven districts, each entrusted to a deacon, and appointed seven subdeacons with a precise task — to collect the Acts of the martyrs, that is, the records of their trials, so they wouldn’t be lost. He carried out work in the cemeteries and brought back to Rome the body of Pope Pontian, who had died in Sardinia, to bury him in the Catacombs of Saint Callixtus. In 245 he sent seven bishops to preach in Gaul, among them Denis to Paris and Saturninus to Toulouse. Then, in 249, Decius came to power, and the truce ended. Fabian died on January 20, 250. If your name is Sebastian or Fabian, today is your name day: two names that have never fallen out of use. A farmer passing through who ends up leading the Church of Rome. Sometimes the best stories are the ones nobody planned.