Honestly, I did not know that there was a St. Fabian. The only
Fabian that I ever heard of was a singer from the 50's. Turns out,
as I checked ITunes, there are quite a few singers named Fabian, but
only one Saint Fabian. Apparently it was time to elect a new pope.
There were several candidates. Fabian wasn't even in the running,
but he just happened to be there. A dove flew in and stopped right
about his head. Everyone saw this, and could not ignore this obvious
sign, so he became Pope. These were hard times for Chrisitianity.
Christians were still persecuted by the Romans. Fabian sent out
bishops to the corners of the known world to evangelize. Fabian led
the church for 14 years before he was martyred by the Roman Emperor
Decius.
In the the catacombs, you can still find the stone that marks his
grave. "Fabian, Bishop, Martyr."
It is broken, but it is still there.
I wonder how many saints there are that we don't know about? I
wonder how many people have literally given their life for our
church, for our faith? In their wildest imaginations they could not
have dreamt about us, but yet here we are, because of them.
There is a line in Hamlet, "to thine own self be true". That is what
Fabian did. He was true to himself and to his God, even in the face
of death. Sometimes we can't even be true to ourselves in the face
that is in the mirror.
Everything that you do effects someone else. Today, start by being
true to yourself, who knows, 1,757 years from now, some teen may
read something inspiring about your life.
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