Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/736

 SEBASTIAN

668

SEBENICO

vilayet and numbers 45,000 inhabitants, of whom 10,000 are Armenian Gregorians, 2000 schismatic Greeks, 200 Cathohcs, and the remainder Turks. The CathoUc Armenian diocese comprises 3000 faith- ful, 18 priests, 7 churches, 4 chapels, a large college conducted by the French Jesuits, and a school taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyons. At Tokat, a dependency of this diocese, are also a Jesuit house, Sisters of St. Joseph, and Armenian Sisters.

SMfTH, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Geog., s. v.; Girard, Sivas, huit aiechs d'histoire in Rerue de I'orient chretien, X, 79-95, 169-81, 283-8, 337-49; Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, I, 663-73; Cumont, Studia Pontica (Brussels, 1906), 217-26; Missiones catholicm (Rome, 1907), 758; Piolet, Les missions catholiques franfaises au XIX siide, I, 178-80. S. VaILHE.

Sebastian, Saint, Roman martyr; little more than the fact of his martyrdom can be proved about St. Sebastian. In the "Depositio martyrum" of the chronologer of 354 it is mentioned that Sebastian was buried on the Via Appia. St. Ambrose ("In Psalmum cxviii"; "Sermo", XX, no. xhv in P. L., XV, 1497) states that Sebastian came from Milan and even in the time of St. Ambrose was vener- ated there. The Acts, probably writ- ten at the beginning of the fifth century and formerly as- cribed erroneously to Ambrose, relate that he was an offi- cer in the imperial body-guard and had secretly done many acts of love and charity for his breth- ren in the Faith. WTien he was finally discovered to be a ^ ^

Christian, in 286, he ^"= Cathedral. Sebenico

was handed over to the Mauretanian archers, who pierced him with arrows; he was healed, however, by the widowed St. Irene. He was finally killed by the blows of a club. The.se stories are unhistorirai and not worthy of belief. The earliest mosaic picture of St. Sebastian, which probably belongs to the year 682, shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow. It was the art of the Renaissance that first portrayed him as a youth pierced by arrows. In 367 a basilica which was one of the seven chief churches of Rome was built over his grave. The present church was completcfl in 1611 by Cardinal Scipio Borghe.se. His relics in part were taken in the year 826 to St. Medard at SoLssons. Sebastian is considered a protector against the plague. Celebrated answers to prayer for his protection against the plague are related of Rome in 680, Milan in 1575, Lisbon in l.'iOO. His feast dav is 20 Januarv.

Ada SS., January, II. 2.07-96; Bibliolheca hnaiof/raphica Inli'na (Brussels. 1898-1900}, 1093-4; A.naUcla BoUandiana, XXVIII (1909), 489.

Klemens Loffler.

Charterhouse and became a monk there. He signed the Oath of Succession "in as far as the law of God permits", 6 June, 1534. Arrested on 25 May, 1535, tor denying the king's supremacy, he was thrown into the Marshalsea prison, where he was kept for four- teen days bound to a pillar, standing upright, with iron rings round his neck, hands, and feet. There he was visited by the king who offered to load him with riches and honours if he would conform. He was then brought before the Council, and sent to the Tower, where Henry visited him again. His trial took place, 11 June, and after condemnation he was sent back to the Tower. With him suffered Blessed William Exmew and Blessed Humphrey Middlemore.

Camm, BleKxed Sfbaxtian Newdigate (London, 1901); and the authorities there cited. JoHN B. WaINEWRIGHT.

XV-XVI Centdry

Sebastian Newdigate, Blessfd, executed at Tyburn, 19 Juik-, l.'j.i.'j. A younger son of John Newdigatf; of Hanfield Plare, Middlesex, king's ser- geant, and Amphelys, daughter and heiress of John Nevill of Sutton, Lincolnsliire. H<r was educated at Cambridge and on going to Court became an intimate friend of Henry VIII and a privy councillor. He married and ha/l a flaughter, named Amphelys, but hifl wife dying in 1524, he entered the London

Sebastopolis, a titular see in Armenia Prima, suf- fragan of Sebastia. The primitive name of this city was Carana, depend- ent on Zela, which was included in the principality given to Ateporix by An- thony or Augustus. On the death of the Galatian tetrarch (3 or 2 B. c.) it was incorporated in Pon- tus Galaticus and made part of the Roman Empire. Carana formed a city l)eopled by the in- habitants of the sur- rounding country, and whose era was dated from this event. It is probably at that time or per- haps a little later, in 19 a. d., that the name of Sebastopolis appeared. The town was organized like all the provin- cial cities; it worshipped the emperors; with some ad- jacent towns it formed a convcntus of which the capi- tal was Neocaesarea; it had coins dating from Trajan. The city received its importance from its position on the great highway leading from Tavium in Galatea towards Sebastia and Armenia. It seems that Tra- jan, who annexed Pont us Galaticus to the reorganized Cappadocia, made SebastoiK)lis a centre of Roman cul- ture in a st ill barbarous coimtry. Adrian visited the city in 124; under this prince and his successors its beauty was increased by the erection of new edifices, a stadium, a portico, a gymnasium, and temples; the principal go<i was Hercules, whence its surname, Heracleopolis. Under Justinian (Novell, xxxi, 1), Sebastopolis was one; of the villages of Armenia Se- cunda; later one finds it placed by the Greek "Noti- tia; episcopatum" in Armenia Secunda or Prima, until the thirteenth century, first among the sufi'ragans of Sebastia. Le Quien (Oriens christ., I, 425) gives four bishops: Meletius, fourth century; Cecropius, 451; Gregory, 458; Photius, 692. By the inscrip- tion Sebastopolis is identified with Soulou Serai, a village of 500 inhabitants to the south-east of Zileh, formerly Zeja, vilayet of Sivas. The chief ancient relic is a bridge over the Scylax. There is also a Byzantine cemetery which furnishes numerous inscriptions.

Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Geog., a. v.; Anderron, Studia Pontica (HriiHscls, 1903), 34-6; F. AND E. Cumont, Ibid. (Brus-

H.-ls. 1 'tor,). 201-9. s. PfiTRinfes.

Sebenico (Sibinicbnsis), Diocese or, sufTragan (jf Zara. Sebenico was the seat of a bishop before