Saint Eusebius

Catholic Saint

st.Eusebius-Pope and martyr

Feast Day : September 26

Perhaps a physician of Greek descent, Eusebius was elected successor to Pope St. Marcellus on April 18, 309 or 310. He reigned for only four months, until August 17 of the same year. His brief rule was marked by the rigorist controversy, which concerned the return of apostates to the church. During the four years of persecution under Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305) many Christians had deserted their faith. They now wanted to return to the Church, which Eusebius, following Marcellus and longstanding Church policy, ruled they could do, so long as they performed proper penance. In this he charted a middle course between Anaclitus, who believed that the lapsed were outside the Church and could not be reconciled to it, and Heraclius, himself an apostate, who insisted that they be allowed to return without penance. The controversy caused such an uproar in Rome that Emperor Maxentius charged both Eusebius and Heraclius with disturbing the peace and exiled them to Sicily. Eusebius died there soon after. The relics of Eusebius were translated back to Rome, probably in 310, and placed in their own cubiculum in the Catacomb of St. Callistus on the Appian Way. Although Eusebius did not die a violent death, he is venerated as a martyr.