Oscar Wilde renewal. He immediately wrote to the Society of Jesus requesting a six-month Catholic retreat; when the request was denied, Wilde wept. "I intend to be received into the Catholic Church before long", Wilde told a journalist who asked about his religious intentions. He spent his last three years impoverished and in exile. He took the name "Sebastian Melmoth", after Saint Sebastian and the titular character of "Melmoth the Wanderer" (a Gothic novel by Charles Maturin, Wilde's great-uncle). Wilde wrote two long letters to the editor of the "Daily Chronicle", describing the brutal conditions of English prisons and advocating penal reform.
Sebastian (name) name of Saint Sebastian, a third-century Christian martyr. The name has been increasing in popularity in different countries. In the United States, it was the 98th most popular name for boys born in 2008. It was the 86th most popular name for boys born in England and Wales in 2007, the 38th most popular name for boys born in Sweden in 2007, the 13th most popular name for boys born in Norway in 2007, the fifth most popular name for boys born in Chile in 2006, and was the 59th most popular name for boys born in New South Wales,