Feast of St. Sebastian in Labin
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Published: 17.01.2020.
As the feast day of Saint Sebastian is celebrated on 20 January, people from Labin considered this saint worthy of defending their town and took him as a permanent patron in gratitude.
One of the most exciting medieval stories about Labin was told on the night of 19-20 January, 1599, when about 600 Uskoks attacked a small town on top of a hill surrounded by walls. A militant group of brigands fighting the Ottomans and the Venetian Republic attempted to break into the town guarded by only 30 soldiers and about three hundred armed men. According to legend, many weaker Labinians, led by a soldier Giambatista Negri, a priest Priam Luciani, and Commander Pietro de Rino, used cunning. They slaughtered an ox and shed its blood at the Sanfior town gate, and rolled empty barrels full of iron down the steep town streets, making a deafening noise. Thus, they created the impression of a well-organized defence and convinced the Uskoks that they had caused them considerable losses. With several dead and only one looted building, the Uskoks were forced to flee.