Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian. The belief that Saint Sebastian was a defense against the plague was a medieval addition to his reputation, which largely accounts for the enormous increase in his importance in the Late Middle Ages. The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one, however. In Greco-Roman myth, Apollo, the archer god, at times destroys his enemies by shooting plague-arrows from the heavens, but is also the deliverer from pestilence; the figure of Sebastian Christianizes this folkloric association. Similar metaphors for divine displeasure occur in the Hebrew Bible. The hopeful example of Sebastian
Saint Albina the Martyrology, states that she was brought to Italy and was killed in the town of Formia. Her remains are kept in the cathedral of the Italian city of Gaeta. According to the Greek tradition, they were miraculously transported there. This is the Saint Albina depicted in the picture, venerated as a saint in Italy. Her feast day is 16 December. Another Albina, who died on 4 March 387, was the mother of Saint Marcella. The Bollandists Henchenius and Papenbroch (of the Acta Sanctorum) did not consider her inclusion in the calendar properly supported by authority. Athanasius of Alexandria may