ON ST. EUSEBIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT MILAN IN INSUBRIA,
In the year CDLXV.
A SYLLOGE
On his cult, age, succession, and deeds.
Eusebius, Bishop and Confessor, at Milan in Insubria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Although he of whom we here treat, St. Eusebius bishop of Milan, is not at all known in our usual sacred Calendars, His cult is sufficiently proved. nevertheless the very Records of the church of Milan, which alone Baronius adduces, and on whose authority he inscribed him on this day in the Roman Martyrology, do not permit us to doubt of his most ancient cult. Further, he rightly notes that he lived in the times of St. Leo the Pope, when, a synod having been held against the Eutychian heresy lately condemned at Chalcedon by the holy Fathers, he sent thence a synodical letter to that same Pontiff. It is extant in the Annals, so that there is no need to write it out here. The Saint's praises from Ennodius and others will be reported below. For the rest, from the words just cited it is easy to gather the age of St. Eusebius; for since St. Leo I presided over the whole Church in the middle of the fifth century, it is manifestly plain that he too must be brought back to those times; I could indeed wish that equally certain arguments were at hand concerning the beginning and end of his episcopate.
[2] That St. Eusebius succeeded St. Lazarus the ancient Catalogues note which it has been permitted to consult, His succession, both that which Papebroch published and illustrated before volume VII of May, page LXII, and another in Mabillon's Museum Italicum, volume 1, page 110, both of which state it in the same phrase: Eusebius sat XVII years; he was deposited on the IX day of the month of August at St. Lawrence's. Another ancient Catalogue also agrees, among the Writers of Italian Affairs, volume 4, page 141, although it marks his death on the VI of the Ides, or the VIII of August, since he could easily have been buried or deposited on the next day. In this there is complete concord, that he sat XVII years; but in what precise year these are to be begun, in what ended, this is the knot, to whose loosing I do not see that anyone has attended more scrupulously. Papebroch thinks the beginning can be fixed in the year 449; but since he attaches the end to the year 465, if he truly died in that year, as Tillemont also judges, the beginning will have to be drawn back to the year 448. However it may be, that he is venerated at Milan on this day is most certain from the Records; but whether it is because the day IX is hindered by the feast of Sts. Firmus and Rusticus, I do not know whether it be asserted safely enough.
[3] Concerning his family and fatherland it is better to be silent than with Ferrari and Ughelli to ascribe him to the Pagana or, if you will, Paganica family. his family and fatherland, Nay, the reading even of the Ambrosian Breviary itself must be reformed, when it thus begins: Eusebius, born at Milan; for that he came to Milan unknown and a stranger, being a Greek by race, that writer nearest to his age and most faithful, St. Ennodius, most expressly pronounces in that famous poem which he sang of Eusebius, and in which also he embraces in a few words his virtues, in Sirmond's edition, epigram 84, On the friend of God, the pontiff Eusebius.
Eusebius came as a stranger to succeed within the borders of the Ligurians, Drawn by the friendship of an unknown people. He was a Greek — those whom the Sun beholds at his joint rising, Shaking the waters from his flaming crown. Mild, composed, generous, pious, upright, bold, So that he would believe it no lasting loss to give. He wept, pitying poverty; he smiled upon the prosperous, Bearing joys and sadness with all alike. Him, as an index of his work, Fame proclaims to a world about to speak of him, Drawing nations from their station.
[4] his deeds. Besides these things Sirmond observes that the basilica of St. Thecla, which now, on the testimony of Bosca in his Martyrology, is destroyed, was renewed by Eusebius after a fire, citing the inscription which once in the said basilica attested to posterity the munificence of St. Eusebius; and it was of this kind:
Ancient roofs rise up again in temples restored to life; What the flame had burned has returned to its own form. He gave these back to the vows of Christ who renewed these temples; By the merits of Eusebius the harmful flame perishes.
[5] An outstanding venerator of St. Lawrence: Bosca adds finally that St. Lawrence the martyr was venerated by Eusebius with the highest devotion, within whose octave he died, and in whose basilica at Milan he was entombed. Likewise, by the help of that same Martyr, when he was discharging the office of the diaconate, he received back whole and entire a crystal chalice that had slipped from his hand. Brautius praises the deed in this distich:
By praying he restored the glass chalice which he had incautiously broken, And duly completed the sacred work.
[6] his miracles Not one miracle of this kind recurs in our Acts; nor indeed is it my mind to call it into doubt: yet it prompts wonder that Ennodius, who praises lesser things, does not mention so great a prodigy even in a word. Lest I heap up here more eulogies of Ferrari, Ughelli, or others whom the praised Bosca cites, the ancient lesson of the cited Breviary will stand for all, which I subjoin entire: Eusebius, born at Milan, imbued from his early age with the pursuits of piety, wonderfully cultivated the offices of holy religion in his whole life. When he was a deacon, carrying to the altar at the solemn celebration of a sacred day a chalice made of crystal with excellent workmanship, he broke it, having by chance let it fall from his hands. Mourning, therefore, he gathered up the fragments and placed them on the altar; where, by ardent inward prayer and by the patronage of St. Lawrence the martyr, which he strove to implore with a flood of tears, he received the chalice divinely whole and entire. Led by the remembrance of this benefit and by the devotion of piety, he chose St. Lawrence the martyr as his patron with special veneration.
[7] and the restoration of churches. Having been made archbishop, he took care at great cost that the churches laid waste and polluted by barbarian impiety should be repaired, and duly consecrated them with the appointed prayers: and for that reason he appointed that the celebration of the consecration should be solemnly kept in the month of October on the third Sunday. Further, he restored the books of the divine Offices burned in the fire of war. Of the clergy
he recalled the discipline to religious manners. He held a provincial synod, in which, besides the other bishops, there were present three illustrious in the name both of doctrine and of sanctity: Maximus of Turin, Crispinus of Pavia, and Abundius of Como. At length, the church of Milan having been piously administered and adorned with sacred rites, noble in the glory of things divinely done and of a life most holily led, he fell asleep in the Lord. These brief Acts I have judged should be preferred to the longer history of Ripamonti, volume 1, book 6, from page 413, in which he merely rhetorically amplifies the miracle of the broken chalice, the calamities of the city, the utterly abandoned manners of both people and Clergy, and finally the raging Eutychian heresy — all which things we have already sufficiently said were restored entire by St. Eusebius.