ST EUCHARIUS, BISHOP OF TRIER - 8 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 8th of December

WELCOME!

SAINT EUCHARIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF TRIER

Saint Eucharius, first Bishop of Trier (Treves), lived in the second half of the third century. According to an ancient legend, he was one of the seventy-two disciples of Christ, and was sent to Gaul by St Peter as bishop, together with the deacon Valerius and the subdeacon Maternus, to preach the Gospel. They came to the Rhine and to Elegia (Ehl) in Alsace, where Maternus died. His two companions hastened back to St Peter and begged him to restore the dead man to life. St Peter gave his pastoral staff to Eucharius, and, upon being touched with it, Maternus, who had been in his grave for forty days, returned to life. The Gentiles were then converted in large numbers.

After founding many churches the three companions went to Trier where the work of evangelisation progressed so rapidly that Eucharius chose that city for his episcopal residence. 

HE RAISED A DEAD PERSON TO LIFE

Among other miracles related in the legend he raised a dead person to life. An angel announced to him his approaching death and pointed out Valerius as his successor. 

Eucharius died December 8, having been bishop for twenty-five years, and was interred in the church of St John outside the city. Valerius was bishop for fifteen years and was succeeded by Maternus, who had in the meantime founded the dioceses of Cologne and Tongres, being bishop altogether for forty years. 

THE STAFF OF ST PETER

The staff of St Peter, with which he had been raised to life, was preserved at Cologne till the end of the tenth century when the upper half was presented to Trier, and was afterwards taken to Prague by Emperor Charles IV.

In the Middle Ages it was believed that the pope used no crozier, because St Peter had sent his episcopal staff to St Eucharius; Innocent III concurs in this opinion. The same instance, however, is related of several other alleged disciples of St Peter, and more recent criticism interprets the staff as the distinctive mark of an envoy, especially of a missionary. 

Missionaries in subsequent centuries, e.g. St Boniface, were occasionally called ambassadors of St Peter, the pope who sent them being the successor of Peter.

AS EARLY A DATE AS POSSIBLE

Moreover, in medieval times the foundation of a diocese was often referred to as early a date as possible, in order thereby to increase its reputation, perhaps also its rights. Thus Paris gloried in Dionysius Areopagita as its first bishop; similarly ancient origins were claimed by other Frankish dioceses. In time, especially through the ravages of the Normans, the more reliable earlier accounts were lost. When at a later period the lives of primitive holy founders, e.g. the saints of ancient Trier, came to be written anew, the gaps in tradition were filled out with various combinations and fanciful legends. 

THE FAMOUS CHRONICLE OF TRIER

In this way there originated in the monastery of St Matthias near Trier the famous chronicle of Trier in which there is a curious mixture of truth and error. It contains the account of the life of St Eucharius given above. An amplification thereof, containing the lives of the three saints in question, is said to have been written by the monk Goldscher or Golscher, who lived in that monastery about the year 1130. From the "Gesta" the narrative passed unchallenged into numerous medieval works. More recent criticism has detected many contradictions and inaccuracies in these ancient records, and it is almost universally believed at present that, with few exceptions, the first Christian missionaries came to Gaul, to which Trier then belonged, not earlier than about 250. 

Following Hontheim, Calmet and others, the Bollandists, with Marx, Lütolf, and other historians refer these holy bishops of Trier to a period following 250, though not all of them consider this as fully established. The feast of St Eucharius is celebrated on December 8. 

From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

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O Euchari in leta via /Sequence for Saint Eucharius - by Saint Hildegard of Bingen 

tr. fr. Latin by Barbara Newman 

Eucharius!

you walked blithely when you stayed

with the Son of God,

touching him, watching

his miracle-working.

You loved him with a perfect love

when terror fell on your friends --

who being human had no

strength to bear the brightness

of the good.

But you - in the blaze of utmost love -

drew him to your heart

when you gathered the sheaves

of his precepts.

Eucharius!

when the Word of God possessed you

in the blaze of the dove,

when the sun rose in your spirit,

you founded a church in your bliss.

Daylight shimmers in your heart

where three tabernacles stand

on a marble pillar

in the city of God.

In your preaching Ecclesia

savours old wine with new -

a chalice twice hallowed.

And in your teaching Ecclesia

argued with such force

that her shout rang over the mountains,

that the hills and the woods might bow

to suck her breasts.

Pray for this company now,

pray with resounding voice

that we forsake not Christ

in his sacred rites,

but become before his altar

a living sacrifice.

From: Barbara Newman, Symphonia, Cornell University Press, 1988