Since St. Fabian and St. Sebastian were both martyred on January 20th, the first in 250 and the second around 288, they are sometimes found together in paintings. This, of course, leads to the artistic spectacle of an anachronistically dressed pope wincing in the direction of the arrow-stricken man, thinking, “Ouch. Looks painful,” as St. Sebastian prays that God will rescue him from the man holding the curious-looking spear.
Fabian was pope during an age in which the job implied the distinct possibility of an early death, as opposed to, say, regal robes, a triple tiara, and cushy living quarters at the Lateran Palace. Bishops of Rome in the third century were still very much underground figures, and often little is known about them beyond a line or two detailing their accomplishments in the Liber Pontificalis.
Because Fabian was much revered by his contemporaries, we know a little more than that.
Fabian was an undistinguished layman visiting Rome in the year 236 when Christians were assembling to elect a new bishop. In the middle of the deliberations, a dove came down from the ceiling and landed on his head. This was taken as a sign by everyone present that the Holy Spirit had chosen the unknown Fabian, and he was unanimously elected.
Fabian’s election ushered in a period of peace for the Church. He appointed new deacons, sent missionaries to Gaul, and appointed people to write down the stories of the martyrs so they would be remembered.
In 250, he himself was martyred when the new emperor Decius reinstituted the persecution of Christians. Some of the newer Christians who had joined the church in peacetime were tempted to sacrifice that pinch of incense to the Roman gods, and save their own lives, but Pope Fabian set an example by being one of the first to die.
He was buried in the Roman catacombs, and the inscription on his tomb survives to this day.
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