Eusebius of Vercelli

Eusebius of Vercelli (c. 2 March 283 – 1 August 371) was a bishop from Sardinia and is counted a saint. Along with Athanasius, he affirmed the divinity of Jesus against Arianism.

Biography Eusebius was born in Sardinia, in 283. After his father's martyrdom, he was taken to Rome by his mother, where he later became a lector. He became the first bishop in Vercelli (in northern Italy), probably sometime in the early- to mid-340s. According to a letter of Ambrose to the congregation in Vercelli two decades after Eusebius' death, the local leaders recognized his piety and thus elected him rather than local candidates (Epistola lxiii, Ad Vercellenses). Inspired by St Athanasius's Life of St Anthony, he founded a priestly community in Vercelli that resembled a monastic community. This coenobium, in turn, inspired others such as Gaudentius of Novara, Eustasius of Aosta, and Maximus of Turin. He was the first bishop to live in common with the clergy, devoting his best energies to form them in piety and zeal. For this reason, the Canons Regular of St. Augustine honour him along with Augustine as their founder.

In 354, Pope Liberius asked Eusebius to join Bishop Lucifer of Cagliari in carrying a request to the Emperor Constantius II at Milan, pleading for the emperor to convoke a council to end the dissensions over the status of Athanasius of Alexandria and the matter of Arianism. The synod was held in Milan in 355. Eusebius attended part of the council, but refused to condemn Athanasius and so was exiled, first to Scythopolis in Syria, under the watchful eye of the Arian bishop Patrophilus, whom Eusebius calls his jailer, then to Cappadocia, and lastly to the Thebaid, in Upper Egypt. His former feast day of 16 December roughly coincided with his elevation as bishop. His current feast day roughly coincides with the anniversary of his death. Vercelli Cathedral is dedicated to him.

In a General Audience in October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI observed, Therefore, Pastors, Eusebius said, must urge the faithful not to consider the cities of the world as their permanent dwelling place but to seek the future city, the definitive heavenly Jerusalem. This "eschatological reserve" enables Pastors and faithful to preserve the proper scale of values without ever submitting to the fashions of the moment and the unjust claims of the current political power. The authentic scale of values – Eusebius' whole life seems to say – does not come from emperors of the past or of today but from Jesus Christ... Krüger (Lucifer, Bischof von Calaris, Leipzig, 1886, 118–30) ascribes to Eusebius a baptismal oration by Caspari (Quellen sur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Christiania, 1869, II, 132-40). The confession of faith "Des. Trinitate confessio", P.L., XII, 959–968, sometimes ascribed to Eusebius, is spurious.