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-These are stories of the saints.

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Saint sebastian lived nearly two thousand years ago.

That was still the very early days of christianity.

It was long before the church developed

Any kind of official procedures for canonization.

So, the stories of the early saints were spread

From person to person,

And they gradually became legend --

That is the realm where historical truth

Gives way to a spiritual truth.

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Sebastian is just one among many christian martyrs,

Before and after his death.

But he's lived on as a kind of prototype,

A supreme example of absolute and undying faith.

We know that he lived

Near the end of the third century a.D.

It's a period of great instability in the empire.

We know that he was a commander in the roman praetorian guard,

Which was a cohort of elite soldiers charged

With protecting the divinely sanctioned emperor, carinus.

And we know that in the heat of battle,

Sebastian and his fellow praetorians

Turned on the emperor,

The latest in a long line of unlucky rulers

Who had seized the throne...

-...And been quickly...

Removed.

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They were led by carinus' rival from the east, diocletian.

Diocletian took control of the empire

As it was coming apart at the seams,

Splitting between east and west.

He created a vast bureaucracy

Which allowed him to consolidate his power.

He wanted to bring back the glory days of the pax romana --

To make rome great again.

-A hierarchy of worship, of our venerable roman deities.

This is our return to the official religion of rome.

-What about the deities of gaul? Or in the north?

And what about all the christians?

There are too many now.

-It is time to purify ourselves.

Simplify and purify.

-Dominu-- -hold your tongue

Until I've finished!

If we're to uphold our responsibility as the rulers

Over this great dominion,

Which is most of the known world...

Then we must re-establish order.

Why would every man in this chamber clamber

To retrieve a trinket from the floor?

I'll tell you why.

Because this trinket is our world.

And it rests in my hands.

I love rome.

I love every cobblestone and every vista.

2,000 years from now,

When rome has taken on a grandeur

We can not even attempt to imagine,

I 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.

-I dedicate my life to you, my emperor, here before you!

-Here is another true roman.

Can I say the same for the rest of you?

-Under previous rulers,

Christianity had been tolerated in the empire,

But diocletian reverted to the old ways --

He ruled by divine right of the roman gods

Making anyone who refused to worship them

A threat to his power.

That was an act punishable by torture.

-I was four when the young dominus gordian

Visited my homeland.

What days those were...

My father was called upon to prepare the welcoming scroll

To be read by the governor,

And it was engraved on a marker that still stands.

I visited it recently. It's in fine shape.

Do you know the illyrian coast?

-I do, dominus.

-The roman vineyards are superior, there's no doubt,

But I miss the illyrian wines when I'm away from home.

When gordian came, they, made the new wines.

Casks of it.

Do you like new wines, or aged wines?

-Aged in gallic caves, dominus.

Yes.

-Gaul.

The wines are exceptional.

One day we'll bring casks from gaul again.

-Yes, dominus.

-You know, the world is our responsibility.

We can enjoy our wines and our feasts,

But only if we maintain our discipline

And hold the ancient order.

I see that clearly.

Otherwise, the wines will rule us and blunt our minds.

-These debates about the christians...

The word that always arises is tolerance.

And if it were a simple matter of tolerance,

There would be no need for all the florid rhetoric

In the senate.

But tolerance does not hold dominions together.

But without our gods,

Who are we?

I'm not making rhetoric, sebastian.

I'm asking you.

-Without our venerable gods we are nothing

But blind men chasing our own shadows, dominus.

-I see something in you, sebastian.

You are a defender of the state.

-Thank you, dominus.

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-The threat of torture was always there for the christians.

They couldn't gather to worship in the home of their pope,

Caius.

So they gathered in secret.

-Salud. -Sebastian,

We rounded up a group of christians

At the old macellum magnum.

Now we know their sign. -What sign?

-It's a fish. -A fish?

-Yeah.

Marcus and marcellianus were among them.

-Tranquillinus' sons. -That's correct.

-Where are they? -Nicostratus' villa.

Thank you.

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-If it were up to me alone,

You'd both be quartered and thrown into the sewers.

But you're being allowed to make a small sacrifice to the gods,

And after that, you'll be free to leave.

-You will never get us to renounce our faith.

-Well, that's good.

Because then I will attend to you personally.

You thought I was joking, didn't you?

-No, I didn't.

You can destroy our bodies easily.

But not our spirit.

-I see...

So this means nothing to you.

Your faith is that great?

-You will pay for your sins.

Will I?

-I can see from your face

That you're paying for them already.

-Well...

I do have another weapon.

And yes, I think I'll get it.

Did you know that your sons were christians?

wait. Stop.

-I see that you did not.

-You've both brought shame on us and all our ancestors!

Shame!

-Dear god in heaven, I pray...

-Stop with your prayer!

-We are in chains and you talk to us in that tone?

-Your sons have been given a very simple choice.

-What choice? -Our choice is to be tortured

Or make a sacrifice to the gods

So that we can walk away alive.

-Yes, and your arrest and imprisonment here

Will be stricken from the record.

By imperial edict.

-How dare you refuse this offer?

You ungrateful little whores!

-I'll make the sacrifice! -No, you won't!

We swore to each other!

-Look, they want nothing from you at all, it's nothing...

It's everything!

-Praetor! Dear sebastian!!

You must explain to these brats that they have no choice,

They must make the sacrifice to the gods!

-I can not and I will not.

And neither will you!

I believe in the one true god and his only begotten son!

you foolish boy!

-I want to speak to them alone.

-Thank you.

Thank you.

-As you say, praetor.

-You're here to save us?

-No, I'm here to help you save yourselves.

-How can we save ourselves?

-Don't you know what he's telling us?

-Brother, don't you believe? -I do.

-Then you must know that we only answer to the one true god,

Not to our ancestors, not to our elders,

Not to our father, and not to our mother --

To god and only god.

That is the only way of salvation.

-Yes, but -- but -- -what?

-How can we dishonor our father?

How can we? -How can you deny your god?

His way is the only way.

-What will they do to us?

-They can't touch your soul.

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-You have nothing to fear from me.

This weapon is not going to leave its sheath.

-If the sword is not going to leave its sheath,

Then why don't you lay it down?

-Because if I do, you're going to kill me instantly

Then you're going to force marcellianus

To renounce his faith.

And then you're going to spread the word

And cause the suffering of many more christians,

Just to gain favor with diocletian.

-I could scream right now. You'd be arrested.

-Perhaps.

But I will promise you this --

I will stand here as long as it takes.

-As long as what takes?

-The struggle.

Your struggle.

-What struggle?

-For your soul.

Brother...

...The struggle will be long...

...But I will be here the whole way.

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dear god...

-It was impossible, unthinkable.

Nicostratus, the terror of all roman christians,

Had converted to christianity...

...And freed all of his prisoners...

...And he had his entire household baptized.

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-Sebastian even converted chromatius, who was the prefect,

Or the sheriff, of rome.

Chromatius resigned his post,

And he freed and converted all 6,400 of his slaves.

Dramatic mass conversions were happening at a rapid rate,

And sebastian was at the secret heart of it all.

And he was going to be unmasked --

It was inevitable.

-I love the empire.

-Say it, my son.

-I feel...

I feel like I'm betraying my homeland.

-Of course you do.

How could you not?

You were trained to defend and uphold

The glory and honor of the empire.

-It was my whole life!

-Yes, it was.

Until now.

Now, your life has another meaning.

-I know. -Everything changes.

And in order for rome to live, rome must change...

And allow people to live with a freedom

That isn't allowed by the empire but given by god.

The only way is the way of love.

And the way of rome must be the way of love.

-We must bring as many people as possible to the south.

The time has come.

-Many would rather stay here and die for the faith.

-The people must survive in order for the faith to flourish.

That is the most important thing now.

This is what we must accomplish.

-Sebastian, you must remember, doubt is crucial to faith.

Real faith.

Otherwise, it's just more blind obedience.

I see...

-In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost.

I appoint you defender of the faith.

Thank you.

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-After the exodus to the south,

Many of the leaders of the christian movement

Were rooted out.

Nicostratus was killed.

And marcellus and marcellanius were crucified.

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-You've found me.

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-Yes. Now I see it.

I thought you were like the stoics.

But it really was a belief in your god.

-Not just my god, yours as well.

Everyone.

-Sebastian...

If it were anyone else,

To me, you were the true heart of rome, the everlasting empire.

-Only everlasting if rome chooses the way of love.

-I haven't asked you to speak.

-I speak in the name of the one true god.

He delivers us from evil and temptation,

And he lives in our souls.

-Shoot him full of arrows so that I can see

Right through him.

-Dominus! Dominus!

You must let christian belief flourish in rome.

You must let men find their way to salvation,

To immortality!

To immortality!

To immortality!

To immortality!

Dear god in heaven...

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-Goodbye, sebastian.

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-Sebastian was found by a woman named irene

Who had come to mourn his death.

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-But then, over many months, she nursed him back to health.

-We must move you to the south.

No one will find you there.

-No.

I want to speak to diocletian.

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-Dominus.

-Get away.

-It's sebastian.

-Sebastian is dead.

-I've risen.

To continue our talk about illyrian wines.

-You dishonor rome, by you wearing that uniform now!

-You dishonor rome with your pagan gods

And your two-faced treachery that's led our dominus

Onto the wrong path!

-You've risen from your deathbed

And hobbled all the way here to tell me your dominus,

Who you once claimed to love so dearly,

Who you kicked away like an old whore,

You are saying to me that I have been led on the wrong path?!

For that you'll die twice more!

-I've come to ask you again to let christianity flourish

In rome and throughout the empire.

You must see this is the only way.

It is the way of god. It is the way of the future.

I beg you to listen to me!

-Jupiter and all the gods damn you and all your ancestors!

-Those pagan gods and the priests who venerate them

Are making a mockery out of you and rome.

-Who is going to seal this vermin's mouth forever?!

-And for your soul, dominus.

For your salvation.

You once told me you saw something in me.

How do you know this is not it?

-Take this man and beat him into jelly and finish it!

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-His body was dumped in a secret place.

But sebastian came to a fellow christian in a dream

And he revealed the location.

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-Sebastian became a saint before the process was standardized

And codified.

It happened in those early days

By word of mouth.

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And it became legend.

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-By the sun,

If they have not sacrificed to the sun god

According to the ancient rite,

And have not obeyed the warnings...

...I will lash them with whips of scorpions

And destroy them with exquisite torments.

-In the year 313 a.D., constantine I took the throne.

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-I believe in one god,

The father almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth,

Of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one lord jesus christ,

The only begotten son of god,

Born of the father before all ages.

God from god,

Light from light,

True god from true god.

Begotten, not made.

Consubstantial with...

-Constantine officially ended the persecution of christians,

And he ushered in the period

Known as the peace of the church.

Before the century had ended,

Christianity was made the official religion of rome.

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In terms of saint sebastian,

Here we're dealing with something

That's really close to a legend in a way, a folk tale.

And he became, what, the first...

Is he considered the first martyr?

-This first martyr is stephen, actually.

-Stephen. Yeah. -Saint stephen, yeah.

But he's one of the early roman martyrs.

And, you know, as you're saying,

The further we go back in church history,

When you have early roman martyrs, saints of antiquity,

The martyrs of antiquity, it's not surprising

That legends would kind of surround them.

-Sebastian is probably a simple man, but with great inwardness.

His relationship to god and relationship to christian faith,

It's not just hidden.

And that's an important part, that it's hidden,

But it's manifestly not for show.

It's something that's going on in his inner life

That marks it off really strongly

Against the public religion of the period, I think.

-Yes. -He's navigating between

His loyalty to the state,

Which is important back then, especially for praetorian guard,

And his loyalty to god.

So, what's your ultimate loyalty?

And for sebastian, it's god.

-The jesuits in japan, too.

Everything being hidden.

-I keep coming back to his simplicity.

His purity is, he's inviolable in a way.

To me, our depiction of it here

Takes me back to early christianity

Where it wasn't all about books and doctrine.

This religion was based on custom,

Stories that were told, holy people that were remembered,

Stuff that was passed on.

And so the story of sebastian helps take us back

Before the bible was consolidated

And doctrine was developed.

-And it's amazing we have these stories at all.

-Yeah. -So for some people who say,

"well, there's all these legends that accrue",

We have them, we have these stories going back

To the earliest days of the church

Which, to me, is remarkable.

-Yeah. -Sebastian's focus is on love.

The religion of the future is christianity

Because christianity is, for him, a religion of love.

Philip larkin, the poet, who is a deeply cynical writer,

Said, "what will remain of us is love."

And in some respects,

Sebastian really got to the heart of the matter.

-"what survives of us is love," is the larkin line.

-That's why we're still talking about him,

Because he cut through the bullshit and figured that out.

-Yeah.

-I love what paul just said about sebastian

Was really focused on love, because, you know, isn't that

The one...That's the one commandment, isn't it?

We're called to hate a certain group

Because they're not like us.

And yet, your love or care for a person

Who's a member of that group can make you tolerant

In a way you wouldn't normally be.

I'm speaking about myself, too.

-Well, I think also that's the appeal of the saints,

That people see themselves in their lives

And that they can identify a part of the saint's life

That means something to them.

And I think that's so beautiful.

I think there's a saint for everyone, right?

-They're all for all of us. -They are.

But I think there's a way

That certain people gravitate towards certain saints,

Which I think is very beautiful.

I always say, my line is that you gravitate towards the saint

Because the saint is already praying for you in heaven.

I feel so much better today, jim.

-I'm glad. -Yeah, I know. I need some help.

-We all do. The saints also -- two roles for the saints,

Traditionally in the catholic church, patrons and companions.

So the patron is the one who prays for us

From their post in heaven, but the companion is the one

Who is kind of our example, really,

Who shows us the way to live the christian life.

So there's two wonderful ways of relating to the saints.

-We haven't spoken about the miraculous nature

Of his being shot with arrows

And somehow recovering from that.

-I mean, that does happen.

People get shot in the head and live. I mean, really.

What's fascinating that wherever the arrows hit,

It missed the main arteries.

It missed everything, and he was taken.

-It just so happened.

-It also raises the issue of like maybe...

Could be...

Maybe one or two of these guys wanted it to miss.

-I love that, martin. -You know what I'm saying?

-Maybe one or two of these guys wanted it to miss.

-They knew him. They all liked each other.

-That's crazy. -That's so funny.

I think of that early time,

Not having the apparatus of the church, as being,

In some ways, you're closer to jesus or something.

But you're right. You know, I can go to mass.

I can go speak to my confessor.

I can pray. There's spiritual groups.

-Without being worried about being killed.

-Yes. -To be able to do the things

That they did under the threat of death is incredible.

-The purity was there.

They knew this was the revelation.

This was the great change for humanity to survive,

You know, and to evolve.

-So this guard has a vision of the future

Of that whole part of the world that eludes diocletian.

He's looking forward and saying, "christianity must flourish."

-But diocletian has got an empire to run.

He's got to make sure that we got to get back to...

Let's get to our roots. Who were we?

That's who we have to -- that's what we have to do here.

It reminds me of that line in the leopard by lampedusa.

You know, in order to stay the same, we've got to change.

-That's right. -And on some level,

That's what sebastian's getting at.

-Yes. -If we want to carry

Romanitas to the next place,

It's got to be founded on this religion of love

Instead of a religion of temple worship.

-Exactly. And it does change.

And it remains the same that way.

The empire changes.

-A generation and a half later, with constantine.

I don't characteristically think of christianity

As the religion of the future.

And that's the way it's represented in this episode.

In other words, I was jarred out of my conventional way

Of thinking by that aspect.

-I think it still is because it will evolve more.

-I feel the heavy weight of the history

Of christianity in the church.

And this story just goes somewhere very different.

-Yeah.

We have to understand, too, the institution of the church,

I must say, is also greatly man-made,

So it's subject to our faults.

-It's not about temporal power.

It is the hope of the future, right,

That the church is always looking ahead.

And I think -- I always think of the line of,

"put not your trust in princes," from the psalms.

That sebastian knew that, that it's about trusting god.

-How does one make this transition

Into this hopefully beautiful unknown future?

-Well, as pope francis says, partly through the arts,

Partly through making films and television shows

About the saints.

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