ST EUSEBIUS OF ROME, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 14 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 14th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

SAINT EUSEBIUS OF ROME, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

Saint Eusebius, a Roman, born of Christian parents, lived at the time of the Arian emperor Constantius. As the latter persecuted the Catholics as cruelly as the former heathen emperors had done, Eusebius endeavoured to encourage the Catholics to adhere to their faith, and to guard them against the prevailing heresy. 

TORTURE

No sooner had the emperor heard of this, than Eusebius was seized and taken into the imperial palace, and placed within two walls, so that he could neither turn nor sit down, but was obliged to remain in a standing position. 

He daily received sufficient food to keep him alive, that he might be in torture so much the longer. 

How dreadfully the holy priest suffered from such unheard of cruelty can easily be imagined. Nothing was free but his tongue and his heart, and these were continually used for the glory of God. With his tongue he unceasingly praised his Lord, asking Him for strength, and offering to Him all that he had to endure, while his heart was filled with the most fervent love for God. This terrible imprisonment lasted for six months, and just so long this holy man continued loving and praising the Lord. In the seventh month he expired and obtained the freedom of the children of God. 

HE WAS BURIED

Two pious priests, Gregory and Orosius, found the opportunity to get possession of his blessed body, and burying it with the greatest honour, they placed upon his tomb the epitaph: "Here lies Eusebius, the Priest, a man of God."

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:

What do you think of the epitaph of St Eusebius? "Here lies a Man of God." St Paul calls his holy disciple, Timothy, a man of God, when he writes: "But thou, O Man of God, fly these things, and pursue justice, godliness, faith, charity, patience, mildness," etc. (1 Timothy 6) Can you be called so? 

"HERE LIES A MAN OF GOD"

A man of God, properly speaking, is not one who because created by God, and owing all his possessions to God, belongs to God; for, if that were the case, every heathen, Jew, Turk and heretic could claim this title of honour; no, it belongs only to him who lives according to the laws and the will of the Almighty; who serves God zealously and with constancy; who performs all his actions for the honour of God, and not only does not voluntarily offend Him, but does all in his power to prevent others from doing so; who seeks the honour of God, and is zealous to increase the glory of His Divine Name. 

The Almighty Himself says of David, who is also called, in Holy Writ, the man of God: "I have found David, a son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will fulfil all my commandments.” (2 Paralipomenon [Chronicles] 8) 

... BY HIS OWN FREE WILL

"Whoever is pious," writes the holy bishop Ignatius, "is a Man of God; but whoever is godless, is a man of the devil, not by nature, but by his own free will." Now, examine yourself and see whether you are a child of God or of the devil; and try henceforth to live according to the will of God, and not according to the will and inspirations of the devil, in order that you may, from this hour, be called a "man of God." 

(From Fr Weninger's Lives of the Saints)