ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS - 16 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 16th of March

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.

ST EUSEBIA, ABBESS

Saint Eusebia's parents were St Adalbald and St Richtrudis. After the death of the first, the mother went with her three daughters Clotfinde (Clotseudis), Adalsindis and Eusebia to the Marchiennes monastery in French Flanders (in the bishopric of Arras), took the veil there and became abbess. 

SHE BECAME ABBESS

For her education, she gave her daughter Eusebia to the nearby monastery of Hamai, where Udalbald's grandmother, St Gertrude, was abbess. After Gertrude's death in 655, the only 12-year-old Eusebia was elected abbess, presumably because her father was one of the prominent personages in the empire. 

Because Eusebia was very young for such a position of responsibility, her mother took her back to have her around herself for a while. 

SHE FAITHFULLY ADMINISTERED HER OFFICE

Eusebia, having grown a bit older, duly returned to her monastery. She took over the office of a superior, which she administered faithfully according to the rules of the order for a full 23 years. 

HER HOLY DEATH

In 680 she was called God to give an account of her administration. Her body later came to Marchiennes. God glorified his handmaid through miracles. With the Bollandists and in Bucelin, Eusebia is listed along with Gertrude on December 6. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints)