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Born Jovan (John) Dabovich in San Francisco, California on [[June 21]], 1863, to Serbian immigrant parents from Sassovae, Serbia, [[Archimandrite]] Sebastian grew up with the church in San Francisco where his parents operated a store. After finishing high school he served his [[parish]] as a [[reader]] and teacher.
In 1884, he was assigned to assist at [[Cathedral_of_St._Michael_the_Archangel_(Sitka,_Alaska)|St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka, [[Alaska]] before he was sent to Russia to prepare for a life as a [[missionary]] [[priest]]. After three years of study at the [[St. Petersburg Theological Academy|St. Petersburg]] and [[Kiev Theological Academy|Kiev Theological Academies]], John was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] in 1887 with the name Sebastian and [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]]. Following his ordination, Dn. Sebastian returned to San Francisco where he served as deacon at the San Francisco [[cathedral]]. He also taught at the pastoral school in San Francisco.
On [[August 16]], 1892, Dn. Sebastian was ordained a [[priest]] by [[Bishop]] [[Nicholas (Ziorov) of Warsaw|Nicholas]]. He was soon sent to Minneapolis, Minnesota to replace Fr. [[Alexis of Wilkes-Barre|Alexis Toth]] as the priest of St. Mary's parish. While there he also taught at the Missionary School. After a year, Fr. Sebastian returned to San Francisco where he organized the first Serbian Orthodox Church, dedicated to St. Sava, in Jackson, California. Additionally, Fr. Sebastian was also asked by Bishop [[Tikhon of Moscow|Tikhon]] to be a member of the [[Orthodox Church in America|North American Mission]] administration. In 1902, he continued his missionary activities, returning to Alaska as [[dean]] of the Sitka deanery.
