Irene of Rome

About Irene of Rome

Irene of Rome is remembered as the widow of Castulus and the woman who cared for Sebastian after an attempted execution. Her story belongs to the received account of Christian suffering in third-century Rome.

According to that account, she went to recover Sebastian's body for burial. Finding him alive, she brought him into her house and nursed him until he recovered. She then urged him to leave the city for safety, but he refused.

Irene's place in Christian memory also developed through art. Art historian Valerie Hedquist describes how the caregiver became especially prominent in later representations of Sebastian, joining practical care for the sick to the older martyr narrative.

The Norwegian church calendar lists January 22 as her commemoration. Its approximate death year belongs to the received tradition, rather than a securely documented chronology of her later life.