CONCERNING ST. EUSTATHIUS, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF CIUS IN BITHYNIA.
UNDER THE ICONOCLASTS.
CommentaryEustathius, Bishop of Cius, Confessor in Bithynia (Saint)
[1] Cius, an ancient city of Bithynia (which Strabo, book 12, reports was called Prusa and Cius Prusias), is situated toward the Black Sea. Cyrillus, a Bishop of this Cius, was present at the first Council of Nicaea; another, St. Eustathius, lived there under the Iconoclasts. St. Eustathius The Greeks celebrate him on the 29th of March, and again on the following day, the 30th of March. Concerning the earlier day, in the Greek manuscripts preserved at Dijon in the possession of Pierre-Francois Chifflet, the following is read: "Commemoration of our holy Father Eustathius, Bishop of Cius in Bithynia and Confessor. a monk This our holy Father and Confessor Eustathius, rejecting this world within himself as a heavy burden, became a monk, and raising the yoke of Christ upon his shoulders and observing his commandments scrupulously, he took proper care of his soul; and obeying God, having been initiated into the Priesthood with much attestation, a Priest he gave continual thanks to God, the bestower of all things, animated by manifold faith toward God and sincere and unfeigned charity toward all: ready to teach all, compassionate toward others, humble and modest in himself, and burning with great zeal for every good work. Appointed Archbishop of Cius by divine will and sentence, Bishop of Cius he governed the Church of God for a long time according to the ordinance and tradition of the holy Apostles. At which time, when heresy had been revived against all the Churches, this holy man, inflamed with a certain divine fire and armed with the meditation of sacred Scripture, he fights against heresies with the sling of true arguments drove away all who seemed scorched with fury against the Church of God. Then some of these fighters against God reported to the impious Emperor then reigning what threats, execrations, and scourgings he should oppose to him. At last, after all other things, having cruelly beaten him with rods he suffers torments on account of the veneration and honor of the sacred and venerable images, they cast him out as an exile from his Bishopric. Persisting therefore in exile for some time, he was in great affliction and want, most wretchedly treated, he dies in exile but praising God in hunger and thirst and nakedness, he departed to the eternal mansions." So far those manuscript Menaea.
[2] venerated on the 29th In the Menologion hitherto unpublished, formerly composed by order of the Emperor Basil the Porphyrogenitus, these few words are found: "Also commemoration of our holy Father Eustathius, Bishop in Bithynia." Which is read in the printed Menaea with the Bishop's name omitted, with only this distich added:
"Ton pelon ekdys Eustathie pammakar, Christo parestes to di hemas pelino."
"Having shed your mortal clay, O blessed Eustathius, You now stand before Christ, who for our sake was clay."
The same Menaea celebrate the same with the same words on the following day, the 30th of March, when the following is read in the Menologion of Sirleto: and 30 March "And of the Confessor Eustachius of Bithynia."