ON ST. EUBULUS, MARTYR AT CAESAREA IN PALESTINE.
YEAR 308.
CommentaryEubulus, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine (St.)
[1] The Tables of the Roman Martyrology on the Nones of March honor St. Eubulus with this eulogy: At Caesarea in Palestine, the passion of St. Eubulus, who, being a companion of St. Adrian, two days after him was mangled by lions and slain by the sword, and was the last of all in that city to receive the crown of martyrdom. Similar or even longer praises of him are found in Molanus in his Additions to Usuard, The veneration of St. Eubulus: Galesinius, and Canisius. We treated of St. Adrian the Martyr on March 5, and briefly indicated other illustrious Martyrs, in relation to whom St. Eubulus is listed as the last, in Eusebius, who treats of all of these in book 8 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 21, or according to the division of Henri de Valois in his Treatise on the Martyrs of Palestine, attached to book 8, chapter 11, where he has this:
[2] While the agitation and fury of the Prefect against the above-mentioned Martyrs was still on everyone's lips, martyrdom according to Eusebius: Adrian and Eubulus, from the region of Manganea, having set out for Caesarea to join the other Confessors, at the very entrance of the city, just like the others, were asked for what purpose they had come; and having confessed what was in fact the case, they were brought before Firmilianus. Who again, just as he was, using no delay, after repeated clawings with which he had furrowed their sides, condemned them to the beasts. After an interval of two days, Adrian indeed, on the fifth day of the month of Dystros, that is, three days before the Nones of March ... was thrown to a lion, and then pierced through with a sword, and consummated his martyrdom. Eubulus, however, the day after next, on the very Nones of March, which is the seventh day of the month of Dystros, when the Judge had earnestly asked him to obtain his freedom, as they considered it, by offering sacrifice to the gods — preferring a glorious death endured for piety to this transient life — after the beasts, like the former one, was slain by the throat, and as the last sealed the contests of the Martyrs of Caesarea. It would also be worthwhile to recall here how Divine Providence avenged those impious Prefects together with the tyrants themselves. For Firmilianus, who had so insultingly abused the Martyrs of Christ, was condemned along with others to the ultimate punishment and beheaded. So Eusebius.
[3] And the Menaea of the Greeks at February 3: The Greeks in the Great Menaea celebrate the feast of both on February 3, and in these words: On the same day, the memory of the holy Martyrs Adrian and Eubulus. These came from Banea. Led by a desire to join the Confessors of Christ, they set out for Caesarea: but detected from their holy manner of life as Christians, they are brought before the Prefect Firmilianus, and immediately they are afflicted with blows on their backs and sides and subjected to other heavier torments. When they persisted immovable in the confession of the faith, they are thrown to be devoured by wild beasts. But the blessed Adrian, matched against a lion, departed victorious from the fight; afterward he was struck with an axe. The holy Eubulus, however, having been tried in vain by many exhortations, flatteries, and blandishments, being finally matched with the same beast, he too was victorious and was beheaded, and with his blood he sealed the contests. So much from that passage, which is also contained in Maximus of Cythera in his Lives of the Saints, in the manuscript Synaxarion of Paris, of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus, and in various manuscript Menologia. But that which was written by the order of the Emperor Basil the Younger and published by Ughelli in volume 6 of Sacred Italy, exhibits another eulogy on February 3, which we gave above in the Acts of St. Adrian, where we also said that the year of martyrdom was the three hundred and eighth; and we raised some other doubts whether, distinct from these Saints at Caesarea in Palestine, other Adrian and Ebolus are rightly venerated on that day, having suffered with other Martyrs in Africa.