The Order of Saint Sebastian | Shane St Reynolds

The Order of Saint Sebastian: Founded on Love and Resistance

Established on Saint Valentine’s Day – February 14, 2026

By Knight Commander Shane St Reynolds, KCSS

February 14, traditionally kept as Saint Valentine’s Day, is also the day I mark the formal founding of The Order of Saint Sebastian. Following a life-altering moment and in the midst of my ongoing recovery, I experienced a deep interior call from God: not to rush, but to quietly lay foundations for a ministry of mercy.

This date honours a simple truth: love that survives suffering is stronger, not weaker. The Order is being established as a future, part‑time ministry to serve those who know what it is to be pierced—especially queer people persecuted for both who they are and what they believe.

Why Saint Sebastian, and Why Now?

At The Good News Blog and in the vision for this Order, we look to Saint Sebastian as a companion of those who refuse to stay down. He is the saint of “double martyrdom” — shot with arrows, left for dead, and yet standing again to speak truth to power. In him we see the beauty of wounded resistance.

We see Sebastian alive in the AIDS activist, the trans youth standing tall, and the queer person seeking a home in a Church that once shot the arrows. Queer people are often persecuted for their faith — told that to be honest about their identity is to lose their place at God’s table. The Order of Saint Sebastian exists to say clearly: your scars are not a disqualification; they are often the very place where grace shines.

The Order of Saint Sebastian is being established as a Public Benevolent Institution. As I continue my recovery, I am laying the groundwork for this part‑time ministry to commence once I am fully back on my feet and physically able to serve.

A Future Sanctuary for the Marginalised

• Advocacy and Human Rights
  Planning to support specialised advocacy for the LGBTI community and those facing systemic discrimination or rejection within faith spaces.
• Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care
  Drawing from my own journey of healing, the Order intends to offer gentle chaplaincy and presence for those suffering in body or spirit.
• Preserving Safe and Sacred Spaces
  Supporting the protection of historic churches as essential safe havens for the disadvantaged and the poor in spirit.

Queer Holiness and the Legacy of Sebastian

Saint Sebastian has often been called history’s first gay icon. He appears in artworks as a youth pierced with arrows yet radiating a strange, vulnerable beauty. The queer community has long recognised in him a powerful symbol: the one who is attacked and still refuses to surrender his light.

Whether you are an athlete, a soldier, an artist, a queer believer, or someone who simply feels like an outcast — Sebastian stands beside you. Even when the world pierces us, it cannot destroy the divine light within.

Historical and artistic notes adapted with gratitude from the work of Kittredge Cherry at Qspirit.net.

As I continue my recovery, I hold this Order in prayer. When the season is right and I am fully back on my feet, it is my hope that this ministry will stand as a sign that Christ’s heart is wide enough for every wounded body and every faithful, queer soul. .

The Order of Saint Sebastian – founded February 14, 2026.