Born in Italy. Diocletian appointed him chief of the palace guard. He prayed to God in secret; when he could, he saved Christians, and when he could not, he encouraged them not to renounce Christ. He also encouraged the brothers Mark and Marcellinus. Then he healed the wife of the jailer Nicostratus Zoe, who was mute for 6 years, and the 2 sick sons of Duke Claudius, the Roman eparch Chromatius, and the father of Mark and Marcellinus, Tranquillinus, and brought them to baptism with their household. First, Zoe suffered, whom they threw into the Tiber River, tortured, then Chromatius' son Tiburtius, whom they cut down, then Nicostratus was killed with a pole, Tranquillinus was drowned in the water, Mark and Marcellinus were stabbed with spears. Sebastian was pierced all over with arrows, but he remained alive, and was killed with poles in 287.

Saint Flor, Bishop of Amen. Saint Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem. Christmas Fast.