Feastday: August 2
Patron: of Vercelli
Birth: 283
Death: 371
Christians who breathed a sigh of relief when Constantine proclaimed Christianity the state religion, believing this would end the bloodshed and martyrdom. But it was all too short a time until they were facing persecution once more -- from others who claimed to be Christian.
When Christianity became the state religion, many people adopted it for political reasons. Others adopted it without truly understanding it. Under these circumstances heresy found fertile ground. One of the most powerful heresies was Arianism which claimed that Jesus was not God (a heresy that has never completely died out). The Arians were powerful people, including nobles, generals, emperors. They commanded armies and senates. True Christianity was in real danger of being stamped out once again.
Eusebius had learned how to stand as a Christian from his father, who died a martyr in Sardinia. After his father's death, he grew up in Rome where he was ordained a lector. This was a time when bishops were elected by the people and local clergy. When the people of Vercelli saw how well he served their Church, they had no doubt about choosing him as bishop.
Pope Liberius also noticed his abilities and sent him on a mission to the Emperor Constantius to try to resolve the troubles between Arians and Catholics. Seeming to agree, Constantius convened a council in Milan in 355. The powerful Arians however weren't there to talk but to force their own will on the others. A horrified Eusebius watched as his worst fears were confirmed and the Arians made this peace council into a condemnation of Saint Athanasius, their chief opponent. Eusebius, unafraid of their power, slapped the Nicene Creed down on the table and demanded that everyone sign that before condemning Athanasius. The Nicene Creed, adopted by a council of the full Church, proclaims that Jesus is one in being with the Father -- directly contradicting the Arian teaching.
The emperor then tried to force Eusebius, Saint Dionysius of Milan, and Lucifer of Cagliari to condemn Athanasius under pain of death. They steadfastly refused to condemn a man who far from being a heretic was supporting the truth. Instead of putting them to death, the emperor exiled them.
In exile in Scythopolis in Palestine, Eusebius lived with the only Catholic in town. Any comfort he had from visits of other saints was destroyed when the local Arians stripped him half naked and dragged him through the streets to a tiny cell. The Arians finally let him go after he spent four days without food. But a few weeks later they were back, breaking into his house, stealing his belongings and food, and imprisoning him again.
Eusebius was exiled to two other places before Constantius' successor Julian let him and the other exiled bishops return home in 361. The problem was not over and Eusebius spent his last years working hard to counteract the damage the Arians had done and continued to do. After working with Athanasius and taking part in councils, he became a latter-day Saint Paul traveling all over in order to strengthen the faith and spread the truth.
Eusebius died on August 1, 371.
In His FootstepsHow much do you know about your faith? Could you defend it against powerful argument? Read the section on the Trinity and Christ's divinity in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 238 through 256).
Prayer:Saint Eusebius, help us to have a desire to learn more about our faith, the wisdom to discern the truth, and the strength to defend it. Amen
Eusebius of Vercelli (c. March 2, 283 – August 1, 371) was a bishop from Sardinia and is counted a saint. Along with Athanasius, he affirmed the divinity of Jesus against Arianism.
Biography
Eusebius was born in Sardinia, in 283. After his father's martyrdom, he was taken to Rome by his mother, where he later became a lector. He became the first bishop in Vercelli (in northern Italy), probably sometime in the early- to mid-340s. According to a letter of Ambrose to the congregation in Vercelli two decades after Eusebius' death, the local leaders recognized his piety and thus elected him rather than local candidates (Epistola lxiii, Ad Vercellenses). Inspired by St Athanasius's Life of St Anthony, he founded a priestly community in Vercelli that resembled a monastic community. This coenobium, in turn, inspired others such as Gaudentius of Novara, Eustasius of Aosta, and Maximus of Turin. He was the first bishop to live in common with the clergy, devoting his best energies to form them in piety and zeal. For this reason the Canons Regular of St. Augustine honor him along with Augustine as their founder.
In 354, Pope Liberius asked Eusebius to join Bishop Lucifer of Cagliari in carrying a request to the Emperor Constantius II at Milan, pleading for the emperor to convoke a council to end the dissentions over the status of Athanasius of Alexandria and the matter of Arianism. The synod was held in Milan in 355. Eusebius attended part of the council, but refused to condemn Athanasius and so was exiled, first to Scythopolis in Syria, under the watchful eye of the Arian bishop Patrophilus, whom Eusebius calls his jailer, then to Cappadocia, and lastly to the Thebaid, in Upper Egypt. Several letters surrounding the council written to or by Eusebius still survive, as do two letters written by him during his exile.
In the latter place Eusebius was dragged through the streets and persecuted in many ways, but never gave up the Catholic faith. Upon the accession of Julian, the exiled bishops were free to return to their sees. Eusebius passed through Alexandria and there attended Athanasius' synod of 362 which confirmed the divinity of the Holy Ghost and the orthodox doctrine concerning the Incarnation. The synod also agreed both to deal mildly with the repentant bishops who had signed Arianizing creeds under pressure and to impose severe penalties upon the leaders of several of the Arianizing factions.
While still on his way home, Eusebius took the synod's decisions to Antioch and hoped to reconcile the schism there. The church was divided between adherents of Eustathius of Antioch, who had been deposed and exiled by the Arians in 331, and those of the Meletians. Since Meletius' election in 361 was brought about chiefly by the Arians, the Eustathians would not recognize him, although he solemnly proclaimed his orthodox faith after his episcopal consecration. The Alexandrian synod had desired that Eusebius should reconcile the Eustathians with Bishop Meletius, by purging his election of whatever might have been irregular in it, but Eusebius found that Lucifer of Cagliari had also passed that way, and had unilaterally consecrated Paulinus, the leader of the Eustathians, as Bishop of Antioch.
Unable to reconcile the factions, he continued towards home, visiting other churches along the way in the interest of promulgating and enforcing the orthodox faith. Once back in Vercelli in 363, he continued to be a leader with Hilary of Poitiers in defeating Arianism in the Western Church, and was one of the chief opponents of the Arian bishop Auxentius of Milan. He died in 370 or 371.
Although in the middle ages he was sometimes referred to as a martyr, this was more to honor the sufferings he endured in standing up for his faith. Later legends of his martyrdom have no historical basis. The Roman Catholic Church celebrates his feast on August 2. His former feast day of December 16 roughly coincided with his elevation as bishop. His current feast day roughly coincides with the anniversary of his death. Vercelli Cathedral is dedicated to him.
In a General Audience in October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI observed,
Therefore, Pastors, Eusebius said, must urge the faithful not to consider the cities of the world as their permanent dwelling place but to seek the future city, the definitive heavenly Jerusalem. This "eschatological reserve" enables Pastors and faithful to preserve the proper scale of values without ever submitting to the fashions of the moment and the unjust claims of the current political power. The authentic scale of values – Eusebius' whole life seems to say – does not come from emperors of the past or of today but from Jesus Christ,...
Works
A part of the Codex Vercellensis, believed to have been written by Eusebius in the year 370.
- Three short letters of Eusebius are printed in Migne, Pat.Lat., XII, 947-54 and X, 713-14.
- Jerome (Of Famous Men, c. lvi, and Epstle lxi, n. 2) ascribes to him a Latin translation of a commentary on the Psalms, written originally in Greek by Eusebius of Caesarea; but this work has been lost.
- In the cathedral at Vercelli is preserved the Codex Vercellensis, the earliest manuscript of the old Latin Gospels ("Codex a"), which was believed to have been written by Eusebius, thought now scholars tend to doubt it.
- Krüger (Lucifer, Bischof von Calaris, Leipzig, 1886, 118–30) ascribes to Eusebius a baptismal oration by Caspari (Quellen sur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Christiania, 1869, II, 132-40).
- The confession of faith "Des. Trinitate confessio", P.L., XII, 959–968, sometimes ascribed to Eusebius, is spurious.
