(A.D. 625.)
[Roman Martyrology, and that of Ado; not in the genuine one of Bede,
nor in that of Usuardus; but in those of Notker and Maurolycus; and in
the Gallican and Benedictine Martyrologies; and in the Scottish one of
Dempster. His life was written by Jonas, monk of Bobbio, in 664.]
Eustace, born of a noble family in Burgundy, had spent his youth in
arms, but he renounced the world and joined S. Columbanus at Luxeuil,
and when, through the persecution of that she-wolf, Brunehault, and her
grandson, Thierry, king of Burgundy, Columbanus was driven from his
monastery, and from the country, Eustace was deemed worthy to succeed
him in the government of the abbey. His marvellous sweetness and tender
companion to all who suffered, mentally or corporeally, endeared him
to his monks; and when they confessed their faults to him, his tears
mingled with theirs, and filled their hearts with consolation.
By order of Clothaire II., he travelled into Italy to recall
Columbanus, and the two saints had the happiness of once more falling
on each other's necks, embracing. Columbanus having refused to return,
Eustace went back to the king and explained to him the reasons of the
saint for declining his invitation. Eustace, therefore, remained at
the head of the great abbey of Luxeuil, which attracted an increasing
number of monks. However, the missionary spirit and desire to preach
exercised an overwhelming influence over Eustace, as over all the
disciples of the great Irish missionary. The bishops, assembled
in the Council of Bonneuil-sur-Marne, by Clothaire II., nominated
him to preach the faith to unconverted nations. He began with the
Varasques, who inhabited the banks of the Doubs, near Baume, some of
whom worshipped the wood-spirit, whilst others had fallen victims to
heresy. He afterwards travelled beyond the countries which Columbanus
had visited, to the extremity of northern Gaul, among the Boii or
Bavarians. His mission was not without success; but Luxeuil, which
could not remain thus without a head, soon recalled him.
During the ten years of his rule, a worthy successor of Columbanus, he
succeeded in securing the energetic support of the Frank nobility, as
well as the favour of Clothaire II. Under his active and intelligent
administration, the abbey founded by S. Columbanus attained its highest
pitch of splendour, and was recognised as the monastic capital of all
the countries under Frank government. The other monasteries, into
which laxness had but too frequently found its way, yielded, one after
another, to the happy influence of Luxeuil, and gradually reformed
themselves by its example. This remarkable prosperity was threatened
with a sudden interruption by means of the intrigues of a false brother
who had stolen into the monastic family of Columbanus. A man named
Agrestin, who had been secretary to king Thierry, the persecutor
of S. Columbanus, came one day to give himself and his property to
Luxeuil. Being admitted among the monks, he soon showed a desire to
go, like Eustace, to preach the faith to the pagans. In vain the abbot,
who could see no evangelical quality in him, attempted to restrain
that false zeal. He was obliged to let him go. Agrestin followed the
footsteps of Eustace into Bavaria, but made nothing of it, and passed
from thence into Istria and Lombardy, where he embraced the schism
of the Three Chapters, and endeavoured to involve therein Attalus,
the second abbot of Bobbio. Failing, he returned to Luxeuil, where he
tried to corrupt his former brethren. Eustace then remembered what
the exiled Columbanus had written to him, in his letter from Nantes,
just before his embarkation:--"If there is one among you who holds
different sentiments from the others, send him away;" and he commanded
Agrestin to leave the community. To avenge himself, the schismatic
began to snarl, says the contemporary annalist, hawking here and there
injurious imputations against the rule of S. Columbanus. Abellinus,
bishop of Geneva, listened to his denunciations, and exerted himself
to make the neighbouring prelates share his dislike. King Clothaire,
who heard of it, and who was always full of solicitude for Luxeuil,
assembled most of the bishops of the kingdom of Burgundy in the council
of Macon. To this council Eustace was called, and the accuser invited
to state his complaints against the rule. They were directed against
certain insignificant peculiarities. "I have discovered," said he,
"that Columbanus has established usuages which are not those of the
whole Church." And thereupon he accused his former brethren, as with
so many heresies, of making the sign of the cross upon their spoons
when eating; of asking a blessing in entering or leaving any monastic
building; and of multiplying prayers at Mass. He insisted especially
against the Irish tonsure, which Columbanus had introduced into France,
and which consisted solely in shaving the front of the head, from one
ear to the other, without touching the hair of the back part, while the
Greeks shaved the entire head, and the Romans only the crown.
Eustace had no difficulty in justifying the customs of Luxeuil, and
in discomfiting the violence of his accuser. But as Agrestin always
returned to the charge, the abbot said to him: "In presence of these
bishops, I, the disciple and successor of him whose institute thou
condemnest, cite thee to appear with him, within a year, at the
tribunal of God, to plead thy cause against him, and to learn to know
the justice of Him whose servant thou hast attempted to calumniate."
The solemnity of this appeal had an effect even upon the prelates who
leant to the side of Agrestin: they urged him to be reconciled to his
former abbot, and the latter, who was gentleness himself, consented to
give him the kiss of peace. But this goodness did not benefit Agrestin.
Hopeless of succeeding at Luxeuil itself, he sowed revolt and calumny
in the other monasteries which had proceeded, like Luxeuil, from the
colonising genius of Columbanus, at Remiremont and Faremoutier. But
shortly before the expiration of the year, he was slain with a blow
of an axe by his servant, whose wife, it was reported--whether truly
or not Jonas does not commit himself to decide--he had intended to
dishonour. At length, in 625, Eustace was called to his rest, and was
succeeded in the government of the abbey by S. Wandelbert (May 7th.)
His relics were preserved in the abbey of Vergaville, in the diocese
of Metz, but on its destruction in 1792 they were carried away and
concealed by the last abbess, Madame de la Marche, in the house of M.
Labrosse, curé of Surianville. They were surrendered by him, on the
return of security, to Mgr. Ant. Eustache Osmond, bishop of Nancy,
and they were placed in two shrines in the Benedictine priory of
Flavigny-sur-Moselle, in Meurthe, in 1824.