According to apocryphal acts, attributed to saint ambrose of Milan, Sebastião was a soldier who would have enlisted in the Roman army around 283 ad. with the sole intention of affirming the heart of Christians, weakened in the face of torture. He was dear to the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who always wanted him close, ignoring the fact that he was a Christian and therefore appointed him captain of his personal guard, the praetorian guard. By 286, his lenient conduct towards the Christian prisoners led the emperor to judge him summarily as a traitor, having ordered his execution through arrows (which became a constant symbol in his iconography). He was killed and shot in the river, but Sebastião had not died. Found and helped by Irene (Santa Irene), he presented himself again before Diocletian, who ordered him to be beaten to death. His body was thrown into the public sewer of Rome. Luciana (Santa Luciana, whose day is celebrated on 30 June) rescued her body, cleaned it, and buried it in the catacombs.