Saint Eusebius of Samosata

Eusebius did not initially hesitate to attend the councils and assemblies of the Arians, with the intention of supporting the party of truth; but having learned that some people were scandalized by such conduct, he broke off all dealings with the heretics and would no longer attend their deliberations, after the council that was held in Antioch by order of Saint Meletius, after his return from his second exile, in 363, under the reign of the Emperor Jovian. In this council, Saint Eusebius signed, along with several bishops, the Nicene Creed, following a synodal letter addressed on behalf of the bishops to the Emperor Jovian.

The episcopal see of the city of Caesarea in Cappadocia having become vacant around the middle of the year 370, Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, father of the Theologian, fearing that the Arians might take the opportunity to spread their venom there, sent to beg our Saint to come and help him give this vacant church a pastor capable of governing it well. Eusebius, who, in all that concerned the glory of God and the service of the Church, did not limit his zeal to his diocese or his province, came from Samosata to Caesarea. His presence caused great joy to the prelates of the assembly who loved what was good, and to the faithful of that city. In concert with Saint Gregory of Nazianzus and several other bishops, he saint Basile Father of the Greek Church who influenced Ambrose. chose Saint Basil as Bishop of Caesarea. This election was regarded as a gift from heaven made to the whole Church, as much as to that of Caesarea in particular.

Saint Basil, after his election, bound himself to Saint Eusebius with a friendship even closer than before, and took care to maintain it through an exchange of letters. He went to visit him in Samosata, and only his poor health and his great occupations prevented him from often repeating this long journey. Saint Eusebius, for his part, returned again to Caesarea, and even tried to be present at various meeting places indicated to him by Saint Basil, who seemed to find all his consolation in seeing him, hearing him, and following his advice.

The virtues of Saint Eusebius shone with such great brilliance, his zeal was so pure and so active, that the ancients gave him the most beautiful praises. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus says, speaking of him in one of his epistles, that he was the pillar of truth, the light of the world, the instrument that God used to communicate His favors to His people, the support and the glory of the orthodox.

The war that the Arians waged against the Church, assisted by the full power of the Emperor Valens empereur Valens Roman emperor and protector of Arianism who exiled Eusebius. , who had devoted himself to their sect, compelled Saint Eusebius to keep constant watch and to stand as a vigilant sentinel in the Lord's camp, to prevent the surprises and advances of these enemies. He had become formidable to them through his zeal and intrepid courage; but this zeal and courage were guided by an admirable wisdom that was usually followed by the success of all he undertook, as much in the troubles and storms of the Church as in times of public calm and tranquility. He was not content with keeping his flock covered from all insult, and maintaining the purity of the faith among the people of his city and diocese against all the efforts of the heretics who sought to corrupt it. As he knew that most of the churches were deprived of pastors because of the persecution, he traveled through Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, disguised as a soldier. In this state, he went to bring the Catholics the help they needed, and to strengthen them against the solicitations of the heretics. He ordained priests, deacons, and other clerics for the churches that lacked them; and when he met Catholic bishops, he joined them to ordain other bishops. He could not hide himself from the Arians so well that they did not eventually discover the hand of the one who was dealing them such harsh blows, and who was inflicting some new wound upon their sect every day. They persuaded the emperor to avenge them, and they obtained an order that he should be driven from his see and his country, and that he should be sent into exile in Thrace.

The officer who carried the prince's order a rrived Thrace Region of exile of Saint Eusebius. at Samosata in the evening; he immediately informed the bishop of the commission that had been entrusted to him: "Take care," Eusebius said to him, "not to divulge the reason that brings you here; you are the most interested party. If the people were to find out what is happening, they would certainly take up arms against you. I do not want it to cost you your life because of me." The Saint attended the night office, according to his custom; then, when everyone had retired, he left with a faithful servant, embarked on the Euphrates, which bathes the walls of the city, and had himself taken to Zeugma, which was twenty-four leagues from Samosata.

The next morning, the news of his departure caused a great stir among the people. The Euphrates was soon covered with boats, so keen was the eagerness of the faithful to find their pastor again. Having joined him at Zeugma, they implored him not to abandon his flock to the fury of the wolves; but he exhorted them to put their trust in God, after having represented to them that he had to obey the emperor's orders. They offered him money, servants, and all the things that might be necessary for him, but he would accept almost nothing. He then commended his dear flock to the Lord, and set out on the road to Thrace.

He passed through Cappadocia, accompanied by the priest Antiochus, his nephew. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, having been unable to see him as he passed through due to a severe illness that kept him bedridden, made up for this shortcoming with a letter to this holy confessor, in which he attributed to his own sins the fact that he had been deprived of this consolation. He testified to him that, seeing him fight so generously for the faith of the Gospel and gain such credit through the greatness of his courage and his patience in tribulations, he regarded him as an illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ, and that in this capacity he commended himself to his prayers, full of confidence in his intercession.

As soon as Saint Eusebius arrived in Thrace, he wrote to Saint Gregory of Nazianzus to give him news of himself. He also wrote to Saint Basil and charged an officer who was going to Cappadocia to inform him of the place and the state in which he found himself. Saint Basil felt a palpable joy upon receiving his letter; and knowing that a man named Eupraxius, a disciple of Saint Eusebius, was going to find him, he entrusted him with one full of praise and congratulations on the crown that the glory of his exile was preparing for him. Saint Basil received several more letters from Saint Eusebius during this exile, and also wrote several to him.

The Arians, who had persuaded Valens to banish Saint Eusebius, did not let the opportunity slip to place a man of their sect on the see of Samosata. Their choice fell upon a man named Eunomius, who should not be confused with the famous heresiarch of that name, against whom Saint Basil and his brother Saint Gregory of Nyssa wrote. He was an extremely gentle and very moderate man, little suited to sustain this usurpation. This is what led Saint Basil to say that God had tempered the persecution of the Church of Samosata, allowing only weak and easily defeated enemies to be opposed to it. Thus, nothing was more flourishing than this Church, in regard to the Catholic faith and Christian piety. This was the fruit of the long labors of Saint Eusebius, its bishop: and this Church, in this storm which separated it against its will from such an excellent leader, acquired a very particular glory through the union of all its members into a single body, which made it appear that it had but one heart, and that it was animated and governed by a single spirit; for, although the Arians had placed a bishop in the place of our Saint, no one, of whatever condition they might be, would be found with him to hold ecclesiastical assemblies. Seeing that everyone fled from him, and that they even avoided meeting him anywhere, he abandoned his position and left the city.

The faithful of Samosata, who were so well equipped against the attacks of enemies from without, found themselves in danger of losing the peace and union in which they lived under the guidance of the priests who governed them in the name and by the lights of Saint Eusebius. The spirit of discord sowed among them suspicions and subjects of division, which caused some troubles in this Church, especially among the clergy. Saint Eusebius learned this news with sorrow. He wrote about it immediately to his people: and this was perhaps what led him to send back to Samosata his nephew Antiochus, to remedy the evil promptly, preferring to deprive himself of his help and consolation than to fail to assist with all his power a Church that he could neither forget nor neglect in his distance. Saint Basil, for his part, having been informed of this unfortunate division from its beginning, by the report made to him by Theodore, deacon of Samosata, conceived an extreme displeasure, because his regard for Saint Eusebius made him love this Church as his own. Fearing that this spark might produce some dangerous conflagration, he wrote immediately to some of the clergy to conjure them to extinguish it promptly, and to urge the dissatisfied to forgive one another, without even entering into explanations, or taking the trouble to justify themselves. This letter, which he sent them along with one from Saint Eusebius on the same subject, was very strong and very pressing in exhorting them not to tarnish the glory of their Church, and to reunite against the common enemy of their faith, who was always trying to make them lose it through new efforts.

The Arians, seeing that Eunomius had abandoned the see of Samosata, put in his place a man named Lucius, a violent and bold man, who made himself even more odious than his predecessor. He had the principal members of the clergy banished, among others Evolcius, deacon of Saint Eusebius, who was transported to the desert of the Oasis, beyond Egypt, and the priest Antiochus, his nephew, who was relegated to the borders of Armenia.

Saint Basil, as distant as he was, could not resolve to abandon this afflicted Church, and he continued his care and affection for it until death. He was not content with rendering all these good offices to Saint Eusebius; he also endeavored to serve him throughout the world, mainly through the good testimonies he gave to the purity of his faith. Saint Eusebius having been accused of Arianism, as well as Saint Meletius, in a conference that Dorotheus had in Rome with Peter of Alexandria, in the presence of Pope Da pape Damase Pope who ordained the two brothers and sent them on a mission. masus, Saint Basil made bitter reproaches to Peter of Alexandria, assuring him that there was nothing so strong for the truth that these two Saints had not said openly and with complete freedom; to which he added that, even if he had given no other proof of their faith, what they suffered at the hands of the Arians was a sufficiently public and striking one.

The ravages that the Goths came to commit in Thrace only increased the sufferings that Saint Eusebius had to endure in this place of his exile. He ran many dangers there; but God delivered him from all the perils to which he was exposed, through the tangible effects of His particular protection. This is what he made known to Saint Basil through the deacon Libanius: and this Saint, after having given thanks to God for it, wrote to Eusebius through the priest Paul, to ask him to give him an exact account of everything that had happened to him.

In the meantime, Gratian having become master of the empire upon the death of Valens, immediately recalled all those whom that prince had banished for the faith. Saint Eusebius, barely re-established in his see, resumed his travels to provide good shepherds for the abandoned faithful. His exile seemed to have given his zeal a new degree of strength and activity. Through his efforts, the cities of Beroea, Hierapolis, Chalcis, and Cyrrhus received Catholic bishops. He attended the Council of Antioch in 379, where he is listed first after Saint Meletius. The same year, as he was accompanying Maris, who was going to take possession of the Dolique City in Commagene where Eusebius suffered martyrdom. see of Doliche, a small town in Commagene then infected with Arianism, a heretical woman, having seen him pass in the street, broke his head with a tile that she threw at him from the roof of her house. He died a few days later from the wound he had received. Seeing himself near death, and foreseeing that the attack of which he was the victim would not be left unpunished, he made those who attended him at his death swear an oath not to prosecute the woman who had wounded him, in order to imitate, as much as possible, his Lord, who prayed on the cross for those who had crucified him, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; and Saint Stephen, a servant of Jesus Christ like him, who, overwhelmed by the stones thrown at him, cried out, eyes to heaven: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." The officers of justice nevertheless wished to prosecute those who had taken part in his death; but the Catholics obtained that they would not be punished. "Such was," says Theodoret, "the end of the holy life, of so many battles and of such glorious labors of the great Eusebius. After having escaped the fury of the barbarians in Thrace, he could not avoid the cruelty of the heretics: but their inhumanity served only to acquire for him the crown of martyrdom." His death is placed around 380. Saint Eusebius is honored by the Greeks on June 22, and on the 21st of the same month by the Latins.

Cf. Dom Cellier; Godessard, etc.