Irene of Rome

Saint Irene of Rome was, according to tradition, a Roman Christian of the time of the emperor Diocletian, the wife of the holy martyr Castulus. She fell asleep around 288. Her feast is on 22 January, the same day as Saint Sebastian.

She was a good and pious Christian, the wife of Castulus, a high officer of the court and a secret Christian. Castulus had given shelter to Christians in his house and even in the emperor's palace, where he held services; when he was betrayed he was condemned and buried alive near the Via Labicana. Irene buried her husband's body according to the Christian custom and remained active in the Christian community in Rome, helping the persecuted. According to the tradition of the saints' lives, when Saint Sebastian was seized for his faith and shot with arrows by Mauretanian archers, Irene, who had come at night to take his body for burial, found him alive, took him to her house, where in a few days he was healed of his wounds. But Sebastian began to preach again and was seized a second time and put to death. Irene died, it seems, in peace; the year 288, usually given, is common to her and Sebastian and may at first have referred only to Sebastian. Painters such as Georges de La Tour, Dirck van Baburen, Benedetto Luti, Trophime Bigot and others often painted the scene of Irene tending Saint Sebastian.