Become a Man fully Alive
Programs designed to help young men flourish through adventure, brotherhood, physical challenge, and prayer.
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The crisis in Masculinity
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Masculinity in the modern age is at a crisis point. The hearts and souls of men are not only being starved, but systematically cramped, shackled, and destroyed.
Young men are tyrannized by safety and emasculated by comfort - and exist in an isolated social desert, void of support, mentorship, and purpose.
Sebaste seeks to fill this void as a fraternal organization by building up men through transformative adventures, physical challenge, and raw exposure to the transcendent power of truth, goodness and beauty in themselves and the world around them.
What we do
Sebaste operates as a contract service that designs and implements dynamic training events or full programs in furtherance of team or institutional goals.
Summer program
A 9-week program for college-aged men in New Mexico.
Do traditional adobe construction, detach from technology, and push yourself with team challenges and adventures.
Training Grounds
Bespoke programs to help men become strong, virtuous leaders.
Team-Building Training: For athletic teams at the mid-school, high-school, or college level.
Leadership Training: For students, teachers, businessmen, or clergy.
Via Magna
“The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness”
- Pope Benedict XVI
Follow co-founder Johnny Kuplack on his run from California to New York. His run will conclude at the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville.
Johnny has competed in 12 ultra marathons, winning about half and coming in second in the other half.
This run is meant to build awareness around the mission of Sebaste.
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Our Four Pillars
Sebaste has built its mission on four core pillars - pillars that serve the innate, and too often unfulfilled, needs of all men.
Devotion: The truly devoted man lives a life of strong and zealous action properly ordered toward an end higher than himself.
Adventure: We live in a world tyrannized by safety. Adventure is not only the antidote, but a need hardwired into the soul of every man.
Challenge: Sebaste uses trial and physical challenge as a means to confront our own weakness, and - by accepting it - to transcend it.
Brotherhood: Sebaste uses mentorship and the fraternal experience of the poetic and the painful to form bonds that hold society together and last into eternity.
Testimonials
Our team
Men brought together by the desire to help men and boys reclaim a masculine identity rooted in adventure, hardship and fraternity.
Co-Founder Jeremy Gay is a husband and father who lives in the small town of Gallup, NM. After getting married, he attended law school and practiced law as an officer for the USMC for 5 years. He and his wife and their seven children moved to Gallup because of its charm and inconvenience. Having had a love of the difficult instilled in him in each of the institutions he was a part of, he and his dear friend Johnny Kuplack embarked on the journey of creating a program that would instill in boys and men a similar love for adventure, sacrifice and brotherhood.
Johnny has dedicated the past 18 years of his life to teaching and mentoring young men around the country and has led courses from the grade school to the university levels. These mentorship efforts have recently taken shape in Sebaste, a New Mexico based nonprofit of which he is the co-founder.
Named for 40 Roman soldiers in the 3rd century who chose to meet death on a frozen lake rather than renounce Christ, Sebaste runs formative programs and adventures for men across the country.
Johnny is currently on “The Via Magna” a journey consisting of 100 ultra marathons in 100 days in a route spanning the continent of North America in order to challenge himself and all who witness him to embark on the transformative adventure of God’s love.
Cyle passionately endeavors to be a role model and positive influence in the lives of young people, especially those who are fatherless or who face other various challenges. Through his work in public education, he aims to empower youth to be virtuous, confident, and accountable. As a coach and athletic director, Cyle believes in the power of sports and competition, and the sacrifices inherently required for their success, to be an excellent means of redirecting the life-course of young people. Along with his wife and two children, Cyle and his family live on a family farm in the Zuni mountains of New Mexico and have a deep love for animals and the beauty of creation.
An alumnus of our summer program, Joe has taught boys at the high school level, embarking on and leading adventures in Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, and the U.S. He plans to attend law school starting next fall. He can be found training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and kickboxing, going on runs in minimalist sandals, studying languages and spontaneously vanishing with a backpack and a can of sardines.
Brian Venegas is a father of three from Gallup, NM. After graduating college, he jumped into the digital agency world, with stints in marketing for an AI data company and for the Diocese of Gallup, before starting his own agency. Upon hearing of Sebaste, he was eager to jump in and support the mission. Now he manages Sebaste's digital content and community engagement.
Virtue through trial
Sebaste helps men reclaim their masculinity through trial, training, and mentorship.
