Curare e far risorgere il martire. San Sebastiano

This article focuses on the particular dynamic of agony in Saint Sebastian. Specifically, it reconsiders his being not dead as a test of resistance to prove his faith, but also to show how pragmatic and cognitive devotional practices have changed over the centuries. Indeed, Sebastian does not survive by virtue of a miracle, like Christ; rather, he survives because he is tended and saved by other people, namely Saint Irene or the angels, who actually heal him. We analyze two Goodmanian samples of the martyrdom of Sebastian in visual arts in an effort to understand what are the factors of his pain, that is, how some specific and iconological features of his manifestation can be correlated to an actual physical disease.