St. Sebastian

Who they were

Sebastian was, by the early accounts, an officer of the Praetorian Guard under Diocletian who used his position to strengthen imprisoned Christians, until he was exposed. Sentenced to be shot by archers, he was left for dead, tied to a tree full of arrows. A widow named Irene came to bury him and found him alive. Nursed back, he did the thing that defines him: he went back, stood in the emperor's path and rebuked him to his face. The second execution, by clubbing, held. Rome venerated him from the beginning. During later plagues he became a chief intercessor, since the arrows read as the arrows of pestilence, and in the modern era athletes took him as patron: the body pushed past what it should survive.

Why people turn to St. Sebastian

Athletes formally. More deeply, anyone in round two of something that nearly killed them the first time: the second diagnosis, the relapse fought again, the comeback.

How to ask their intercession

For an athlete before a season, and for a fighter of any kind before round two. Ask his prayers for the going back part, since the survival was given and the return was his choice.