IFTTT Autopost 
Today is the feast day of Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of both the pueblo and municipality of Reitoca, F.M., Honduras. The pueblo is the seat of the parish of San Francisco de Asís.
St. Sebastian was a Roman martyr who lived in the third century, but that is about all the information that is available. He began to be mentioned in the Roman martyrologies as early as 350 A.D.
Although St. Sebastian is the patron saint of Reitoca, and Reitoca is the seat of our parish, he is not the patron saint of our parish – St. Francis of Assisi is.
Of the 41 churches of our parish, 24 of them are in the Municipality of Reitoca, and a statue of St. Sebastian visits each of those churches of the parish in January for a Mass. Our parish has 3 other municipalities that have the other 17 churches of the parish.
In the photo above, we see a procession of St. Sebastian on his feast day leading the people to the Church of San Francisco de Asís in the pueblo of Reitoca for the annual January 20 Mass of St. Sebastian.
In the pueblo of Reitoca, there is a feria (little festival) of several days to celebrate St. Sebastian. The festival has parades, music, dancing, rides, clowns, lots of delicious foods, and pop-up stands selling a variety of goods. Especially popular are school supplies, for the new school year begins in February. (Here in Honduras, our “summer vacation” is during the months of November, December, and January.)
