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00:00These are stories of the saints.
00:30St. Sebastian lived nearly 2,000 years ago.
00:52That was still the very early days of Christianity.
00:55It was long before the church developed any kind of official procedures for canonization.
01:03So the stories of the early saints were spread from person to person.
01:10And they gradually became legend.
01:14That is the realm where historical truth gives way to a spiritual truth.
01:24Sebastian is just one among many Christian martyrs before and after his death.
01:32Sebastian is a kind of prototype, a supreme example of absolute and undying faith.
01:44We know that he lived near the end of the third century AD.
01:47It's a period of great instability in the empire.
01:53We know that he was a commander in the Roman Praetorian Guard, which was a cohort of elite
01:58soldiers charged with protecting the divinely sanctioned emperor, Carinus.
02:07And we know that in the heat of battle, Sebastian and his fellow Praetorians turned on the emperor,
02:16the latest in a long line of unlucky rulers who had seized the throne and been quickly removed.
02:26They were led by Carinus' rival from the east, Diocletian.
02:38Diocletian took control of the empire as it was coming apart at the seams, splitting between east and west.
02:47He created a vast bureaucracy which allowed him to consolidate his power.
02:53He wanted to bring back the glory days at the Pax Romana to make Rome great again.
03:02A hierarchy of worship of our venerable Roman deities.
03:12This is a return to the official religion of Rome.
03:14What about the deities of Gaul? Or in the north? And what about all the Christians? There are too many now.
03:23It is time to purify ourselves. Simplify and purify.
03:29Dominus. Hold your tongue until I finish.
03:35If we are to uphold our responsibility as the rulers over this great dominion, which is most of the known world,
03:44then we must re-establish order.
03:50Why would every man in this chamber clamber to retrieve a trinket from the floor?
04:18I'll tell you why. Because this trinket is our world. And it rests in my hands.
04:36I love Rome. I love every cobblestone and every vista.
04:45Two thousand years from now, when Rome has taken on a grandeur we cannot even attempt to imagine,
04:53I will sit at the banquet of the gods and smile with the certainty that I was one of those who maintained its might and its splendor.
05:03I dedicate my life to you, my Emperor, here, before you.
05:08Here is another true Roman.
05:18Can I say the same for the rest of you?
05:20Under previous rulers, Christianity had been tolerated in the Empire, but Diocletian reverted to the old ways.
05:32He ruled by divine right of the Roman gods, making anyone who refused to worship them a threat to his power.
05:40That was an act punishable by torture.
05:44I was four when the young Dominus Gordian visited my homeland. What days those were.
05:58My father was called upon to prepare the welcoming scroll to be read by the governor.
06:04And it was engraved on a marker that still stands.
06:07I visited it recently. It's in fine shape. Do you know the Illyrian coast?
06:11I do, Dominus.
06:12The Roman vineyards are superior, there's no doubt.
06:17But I miss the Illyrian wines when I'm away from home.
06:22When Gordian came, they, uh, made the new wines. Casks of it.
06:29Do you like new wines or aged wines?
06:33Aged and gather caves, Dominus.
06:36Oh, yes. Ha!
06:39Gaul.
06:41The wines are exceptional.
06:44One day we'll bring casks from Gaul again.
06:47Yes, Dominus.
06:51You know, the world is our responsibility.
06:56We can enjoy our wines and our feasts, but only if we maintain our discipline and hold the ancient order.
07:01I see that clearly.
07:04Otherwise, the wines will rule us and blunt our minds.
07:15These debates about the Christians...
07:20The word that always arises is...
07:23Tolerance.
07:26And if it were a simple matter of tolerance, there would be no need for all the florid rhetoric in the Senate.
07:31But tolerance does not hold dominions together.
07:44But without our gods, who are we?
07:46Without our venerable gods, we are nothing but blind men chasing their own shadow.
08:01Dominus.
08:02I see something in you, Sebastian.
08:08You are a defender of the state.
08:15Thank you, Dominus.
08:16The threat of torture was always there for the Christians.
08:32They couldn't gather to worship in the home of their pope, Caius.
08:35Caius.
08:37So they gathered in secret.
08:38So they gathered in secret.
08:39And they found them in secret.
08:40So, by the way, they ruled them, let us know how...
08:44So they had to know these souls are in secret.
08:46So they found them.
08:47So they have to be taken out of their church.
08:49So we looked down with them, the Christian king.
08:51And they did not have to know the sign.
08:53And there was no sign.
08:54So we got to know them.
08:56And we only have to know them.
08:57And they had to know them.
08:58And they were not with an amazing servant.
08:59A fish.
09:00A fish?
09:01Yeah.
09:02Marcus and Marcellanus were among them.
09:05Tranquilinus' sons.
09:07That's correct.
09:08Where are they?
09:10Mikostradus' villa.
09:15If it were up to me alone, you'd both be quartered and thrown into the sewers.
09:38But you're being allowed to make a small sacrifice to the gods.
09:42And after that, you will be free to leave.
09:46You will never get us to renounce our faith.
09:51Well, that's good.
09:53Because then, I will attend to you personally.
10:02You thought I was joking, didn't you?
10:05I didn't.
10:07You can destroy our bodies easily.
10:10Not our spirit.
10:12I see.
10:14So this means nothing to you?
10:18Your faith is that great?
10:21You will pay for your sins.
10:24Will I?
10:26And I can see from your face that you're paying for them already.
10:41Well, I do have another weapon.
10:45And yes, I think I'll get it.
11:00Did you know that your sons were Christians?
11:04I see that you did not.
11:09You've both brought shame on us.
11:11And all our ancestors.
11:13Shame.
11:19Dear God in heaven, I pray...
11:20Stop with your prayer.
11:22We are in chains and you talk to us in that town?
11:25Your sons have been given a very simple choice.
11:27What choice?
11:28Our choice is to be tortured or to make a sacrifice to the gods so that we can walk away alive.
11:35Yes.
11:36And your arrest and imprisonment here will be stricken from the record by imperial edict.
11:42How dare you refuse this offer?
11:47You ungrateful little whores!
11:50I'll make the sacrifice.
11:51You won't.
11:53We swore it to each other.
11:55Look, they want nothing from you at all.
11:58It's nothing.
11:59It's everything.
12:04Pretor!
12:06Dear Sebastian,
12:07you must explain to these brats that they have no choice.
12:10They must make the sacrifice to the gods.
12:12I cannot and I will not.
12:15And neither will you.
12:19I believe in the one true God and his only begotten Son.
12:24God!
12:25You fool!
12:27Bull!
12:28I won't speak to them alone.
12:35As you say,
12:39Praetor.
12:40You're here to save us.
12:41No!
12:42No!
12:43No!
12:44No!
12:45No!
12:46No!
12:47You're here to save us.
13:11I'm here to help you save yourselves.
13:13How can we save ourselves?
13:18Don't you know what he's telling us?
13:20Brother, don't you believe?
13:24I do.
13:25Then you must know that we only answer to the one true God.
13:31Not to our ancestors, not to our elders, not to our father, and not to our mother.
13:37To God.
13:38And only God.
13:40That is the only way of salvation.
13:44Yes, but...
13:45But what?
13:46How can we dishonor our father?
13:49How can we?
13:51How can you deny you, God?
13:54His way is the only way.
13:58What will they do to us?
14:01They can't touch your soul.
14:03You have nothing to fear for me.
14:21This weapon is not going to leave its sheath.
14:25If the sword is not going to leave its sheath, then why don't you lay it down?
14:31Because if I do, you're going to kill me instantly.
14:33And you're going to force Marcy Linus to renounce his faith.
14:37And then you're going to spread the word and cause the suffering of many more Christians just to gain favor with Diocletian.
14:42I could scream right now, and you'd be arrested.
14:46Perhaps.
14:50But I will promise you this.
14:52I will stand here.
14:54As long as it takes.
14:58As long as what takes?
15:00The struggle.
15:03Your struggle.
15:04What struggle?
15:06For your soul.
15:07The struggle will be long.
15:37But I will be here.
15:52Go away.
16:07Oh, my God.
16:29It was impossible.
16:33Unthinkable.
16:33Nicostratus, the terror of all Roman Christians, had converted to Christianity.
16:42He freed all of his prisoners.
16:47And he had his entire household baptized.
16:51Daigo de Baptismo in Domne Patres Filii Espiritu Santi.
16:55Sebastian even converted Chromatius, who was the prefect or the sheriff of Rome.
17:10Chromatius resigned his post, and he freed and converted all 6,400 of his slaves.
17:17Dramatic mass conversions were happening at a rapid rate, and Sebastian was at the secret
17:24heart of it all.
17:29And he was going to be unmasked.
17:32It was inevitable.
17:32I love the Empire.
17:59Say it myself.
18:00I feel, I feel like I'm betraying my homeland.
18:10Of course you do.
18:12How could you not?
18:13You were trained to defend and uphold the glory and honor of the Empire.
18:19It was my whole life.
18:21Yes, it was.
18:23Until now.
18:25Now your life has another meaning.
18:31I know.
18:33Everything changes.
18:35And in order for Rome to live, Rome must change.
18:40And allow people to live with a freedom that isn't allowed by the Empire.
18:44But given by God, the only way is the way of love.
18:49And the way of Rome must be the way of love.
18:55You must bring as many people as possible to the south.
18:59The time has come.
19:02Many would rather stay here and die for the faith.
19:05But people must survive in order for the faith to flourish.
19:09That is the most important thing now.
19:11That is what we must accomplish.
19:13Bastion.
19:15You must remember, doubt is crucial to faith.
19:19Real faith.
19:22Otherwise it's just more blind obedience.
19:24I say in the name of the Father, the Son, the power of the Ghost.
19:34I appoint you defender of the faith.
19:46After the exodus to the south, many of the leaders of the Christian movement were rooted out.
20:07Nicostratus was killed.
20:11And Marcellus and Marcellianus were crucified.
20:16You found me.
20:46I came here.
20:46I came here.
20:46TUNE
20:53TUNE
20:57TUNE
21:06Yes, now I see it.
21:24I thought you would like the Stoics.
21:27But it really was a belief in your God.
21:30Not just my God.
21:32Yours as well, everyone.
21:35Sebastian.
21:37If it were anyone else, to me you were the true heart of Rome, the everlasting empire.
21:42Only everlasting if Rome chooses the way of love.
21:44I haven't asked you to speak.
21:46I speak in the name of the one true God.
21:50He delivers us from evil and temptation and he lives in our souls.
21:54Shoot him full of arrows so that I can see right through him.
21:58Dominos.
21:59Dominos!
22:00You must let Christian belief flourish in Rome.
22:03You must let men find their way to salvation, to immortality, to immortality, to immortality, to immortality.
22:17We are a God in heaven.
22:19Goodbye, Sebastian.
22:38Sebastian.
22:53Sebastian was found by a woman named Irene, who had come to mourn his death.
23:23But then, over many months,
23:51she nursed him back to health.
23:55We must move you to the south.
23:57No one will find you there.
24:01No.
24:03I want to speak to Diocresia.
24:21Domenos.
24:31Get away.
24:35It's Sebastian.
24:37Sebastian is dead.
24:39I've risen to continue our talk about Illyrian wines.
24:49You dishonor Rome by your wearing that uniform now.
24:53You dishonor Rome with your pagan gods and your two-faced treachery that has led our Dominos onto the wrong path.
24:59You've risen from your deathbed and humbled all the way here to tell me your Dominos, who you once claimed to love so dearly, who you kicked away like an old whore.
25:09You are saying to me that I have been led on the wrong path for that to die twice more.
25:15I've come to ask you again to let Christianity flourish in Rome and throughout the Empire.
25:20You must see this is the only way.
25:22It is the way of God.
25:23It is the way of the future.
25:25I beg you to listen to me.
25:27Jupiter and all the gods!
25:29Damn you and all your ancestors!
25:34Those pagan gods and the priests who venerate them are making a mockery out of you.
25:38And Rome is.
25:40Who's gonna seal this woman's mouth forever?
25:42And for your soul, Dominos.
25:44For your salvation.
25:55You once told me you saw something in me.
26:00How do you know this is not it?
26:04Take this man and beat him into jelly.
26:09This time finish it!
26:25zomb...
26:29zomb...
26:34zomb...
26:49zomb...
26:52zomb...
26:53His body was dumped in a secret place.
27:19But Sebastian came to a fellow Christian in a dream, and he revealed a location.
27:49Sebastian became a saint before the process was standardized and codified.
28:15It happened in those early days by word of mouth, and it became legend.
28:23By the sun, if they have not sacrificed to the sun god according to the ancient rite, and
28:41have not obeyed the warnings, I will lash them with whips of scorpions and destroy them with
28:48exquisite torments.
28:53In the year 313 AD, Constantine I took the throne.
29:00I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible
29:23and invisible.
29:34I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all
29:43ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial...
30:02Constantine officially ended the persecution of Christians, and he ushered in the period
30:07known as the Peace of the Church.
30:13Before the century had ended, Christianity was made the official religion of Rome.
30:20Christianity was made the official religion of Rome.
30:42In terms of Saint Sebastian, here we're dealing with something that's really close to a legend
30:49in a way, a folk tale.
30:51And he became, what, the first...is he considered the first martyr?
30:57This first martyr is Stephen actually, St. Stephen, yeah.
31:00But he's one of the early Roman martyrs, and as you're saying, the further we go back in
31:06church history, when you have early Roman martyrs, saints of antiquity, the martyrs of antiquity,
31:11it's not surprising that legends would kind of surround them.
31:14Sebastian is probably a simple man, but with great inwardness.
31:18His relationship to God and relationship to Christian faith, it's not just hidden, and
31:22that's an important part that it's hidden, but it's manifestly not for show.
31:26It's something that's going on in his inner life that marks it off really strongly against
31:31the public religion of the period, I think.
31:33He's navigating between his loyalty to the state, which is important back then, especially
31:39for Praetorian Guard, and his loyalty to God.
31:42So what's your ultimate loyalty?
31:44And for Sebastian, it's God.
31:46The Jesuits in Japan, too, everything being hidden.
31:49I keep coming back to his simplicity.
31:51His purity is, he's inviolable in a way.
31:54To me, our depiction of it here takes me back to early Christianity, where it wasn't all about
32:00books and doctrine.
32:02This religion was based on custom, stories that were told, holy people that were remembered,
32:10stuff that was passed on.
32:12And so the story of Sebastian helps take us back before the Bible was consolidated and
32:17doctrine was developed.
32:18It's amazing we have these stories at all.
32:21So for some people who say, well, there's all these legends that accrue, and we have them.
32:26We have these stories going back to the earliest days of the church, which to me is remarkable.
32:31Sebastian focuses on love.
32:32The religion of the future is Christianity, because Christianity is, for him, a religion
32:37of love.
32:38Philip Larkin, the poet, who is a deeply cynical writer, said, what will remain of us is love.
32:43And in some respects, Sebastian really got to the heart of the matter.
32:47What survives of us is love, is the Larkin line.
32:50That's why we're still talking about him, because he cut through the bullshit and figured
32:53that out.
32:54Yeah.
32:55I love what Paul just said about Sebastian was really focused on love, because, you know,
33:01isn't that the one, that's the one commandment, isn't it?
33:04We're called to hate a certain group because they're not like us.
33:08And yet, your love or care for a person who's a member of that group can make you tolerant
33:15in a way you wouldn't normally be.
33:16I'm speaking about myself, too.
33:18Well, I think also that's the appeal of the saints, that people see themselves in their lives,
33:23that they can identify a part of the saints' life that means something to them.
33:27And I think that's so beautiful.
33:28I think there's a saint for everyone, right?
33:30Because there's something that...
33:31Or they're all for all of us.
33:32They are.
33:33But I think there's a way that certain people gravitate towards certain saints, which I
33:37think is very beautiful.
33:38I always say, my line is that you gravitate towards the saint because the saint is already
33:42praying for you in heaven.
33:43Oh.
33:44That's my theory.
33:45I feel so much better today, Jim.
33:47I was...
33:48I'm glad.
33:49Yeah, I know.
33:50I need some help.
33:51We all do.
33:52The saints also, two roles for the saints traditionally in the Catholic Church, patrons and companions.
33:58So the patron is the one who prays for us from their post in heaven, but the companion
34:02is the one who is kind of our example, really, who shows us the way to live the Christian life.
34:06So there's two wonderful ways of relating to the saints.
34:10We haven't spoken about the miraculous nature of his being shot with arrows and somehow
34:16recovering from that.
34:17I mean, that does happen.
34:20People get shot in the head and live.
34:21I mean, really, it was fascinating that wherever the arrows hit, it missed the main arteries
34:27and missed everything.
34:28And he was...
34:29It just so happens.
34:30And then it also raises the issue of like, maybe, could be, I mean, just maybe one or two
34:36of these guys wanted it to miss.
34:38Oh, I love that, Mark.
34:40You know what I'm saying?
34:41Maybe one or two of these guys wanted it to miss.
34:44It's so funny.
34:47I think at that early time, not having the apparatus of the church as being, in some ways,
34:55you're closer to Jesus or something, but you're right.
34:58Yes.
34:59You know, I can go to mass.
35:00I can go speak to my confessor.
35:02I can pray.
35:03There are spiritual groups.
35:04Without being worried about being killed.
35:06Yes.
35:07To be able to do the things that they did under the threat of death is incredible.
35:12But the purity was there.
35:15They knew this was the revelation.
35:17This was the great change for humanity to survive, you know, and to evolve.
35:24So this guard has a vision of the future of that whole part of the world that eludes Diocletian.
35:29Yes.
35:30He's looking forward and saying, Christianity must flourish.
35:32Diocletian has got an empire to run.
35:34And he's going to make sure that we're going to get back to, let's get back to our roots.
35:38Who are we?
35:39That's what we have to, that's what we have to do here.
35:41It reminds me of that line in The Leopard, Lampedusa.
35:44Yeah, right.
35:45In order to stay the same, we've got to change.
35:47That's right.
35:48And on some level, that's what Sebastian's getting at.
35:50Yes.
35:51We want to carry Romanitas to the next place.
35:53It's got to be founded on this religion of love instead of a religion of temple worship.
35:58Exactly.
35:59And it does change.
36:00And it remains the same that way.
36:01With constant.
36:02The empire changes.
36:03A generation and a half later.
36:04A generation, two generations.
36:06I don't characteristically think of Christianity as the religion of the future.
36:10And that's the way it's represented in this episode.
36:12It is.
36:13In other words, I was jarred out of my conventional way of thinking to that aspect of the story.
36:16I think it still is because it will evolve more.
36:18It's beautiful.
36:19I feel the heavy weight of the history of Christianity in the church.
36:22Oh, yeah.
36:23And this story just goes somewhere very different.
36:25Yeah.
36:26I mean, we have to understand, too, the institution of the church, I must say, is also greatly man-made.
36:32So it's subject to our faults.
36:35But he also knows that it's not about temporal power.
36:37It is the hope of the future, right?
36:40The church is always looking ahead.
36:42And I always think of the line of putting out your trust in princes from the Psalms.
36:47Right.
36:48That Sebastian knew that.
36:50That it's about trusting God.
36:51How does one make this transition into this hopefully beautiful unknown future?
36:58Well, Pope Francis says, partly through the arts, partly through making films and television shows about the saints.
37:05...
37:13...
37:14...
37:21...
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