St. Eustathius was a native of Sida in Pamphylia, and with heroic
constancy confessed the faith of Christ before the pagan persecutors,
as St. Athanasius assures us,[178] though it does not appear whether
this happened under Dioclesian or Licinius. He was learned, eloquent,
and eminently endowed with all virtue, especially an ardent zeal for
the purity of our holy faith. Being made bishop of Beræa in Syria
he began in that obscure see to be highly considered in the Church,
insomuch that St. Alexander of Alexandria wrote to him in particular
against Arius and his impious writings, in 323. St. Philogonius,
bishop of Antioch, a prelate illustrious for his confession of the
faith, in the persecution of Licinius, died in 323. One Paulinus
succeeded him, but seems a man not equal to the functions of that
high station; for, during the short time he governed that church,
tares began to grow up among the good seed. To root these out, when
that dignity became again vacant, in 324, the zeal and abilities of
St. Eustathius were called for, and he was accordingly translated
to this see, in dignity the next to Alexandria, and the third in
the world. He vigorously opposed the motion, but was compelled to
acquiesce. Indeed, translations of bishops, if made without cogent
reasons of necessity, become, to many, dangerous temptations of
ambition and avarice, and open a door to those fatal vices into
the sanctuary. To put a bar to this evil, St. Eustathius, in the
same year, assisting at the general council of Nice, zealously
concurred with his fellow bishops to forbid for the time to come all
removals of bishops from one see to another.[179] The new patriarch
distinguished himself in that venerable assembly by his zeal against
Arianism. Soon after his return to Antioch he held a council there
to unite his church, which he found divided by factions. He was very
strict and severe in examining into the characters of those whom he
admitted into the clergy, and he constantly rejected all those whose
principles, faith, or manners appeared suspected: among whom were
several who became afterward ringleaders of Arianism. Amidst his
external employs for the service of others, he did not forget that
charity must always begin at home, and he labored in the first place
to sanctify his own soul; but after watering his own garden he did
not confine the stream there, but let it flow abroad to enrich the
neighboring soil, and to dispense plenty and fruitfulness all around.
He sent into other diocesses that were subject to his patriarchate,
men capable of instructing and encouraging the faithful. Eusebius,
archbishop of Cæsarea, in Palestine (which church was, in some
measure, subject to Antioch), favored the new heresy in such a manner
as to alarm the zeal of our saint.[180] This raised a violent storm
against him.
Eusebius of Nicomedia laid a deep plot with his Arian friends to
remove St. Eustathius from Antioch, who had attacked Eusebius of
Cæsarea, and accused him of altering the Nicene Creed. Hereupon,
Eusebius of Nicomedia, pretending a great desire to see the city of
Jerusalem, set out in great state, taking with him his confidant,
Theognis of Nice. At Jerusalem they met Eusebius of Cæsarea,
Patrophilus of Scythopolis, Aëtius of Lydda, Theodotus of Laodicea,
and several others, all of the Arian faction; who returned with them
to Antioch. There they assembled together, as in a Synod, in 331, and
a debauched woman, whom the Arians had suborned, coming in, showed
a child which she suckled at her breast, and declared that she had
it by Eustathius. The saint protested his innocence, and alleged
that the apostle forbids a priest to be condemned unless convicted
by two or more witnesses. This woman, before her death, after a
long illness, called in a great number of the clergy, and publicly
declared to them the innocence of the holy bishop, and confessed
that the Arians had given her money for this action, pretending
that no perjury was implied in her oath, upon the frivolous and
foolish plea that she had the child by a brazier of the city called
Eustathius.[181] The Arians accused him also of Sabellianism, as
Socrates and others testify; this being their general charge and
slander against all who professed the orthodox faith.
The Catholic bishops who were present with Eustathius, cried out
loudly against the injustice of these proceedings, but could not be
heard, and the Arians pronounced a sentence of deposition against
the saint; and Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis hastened to inform
the emperor Constantine of these proceedings. The Arian bishops
invited Eusebius of Cæsarea to exchange his see for the patriarchal
chair of Antioch, but he alleged the prohibition of the canons; and
the emperor Constantine commended his modesty by a letter which
Eusebius has inserted in his life of that prince.[182] We should have
been more edified with his humility had this circumstance been only
recorded by others.[183] This happened, not in 340, as Baronius and
Petavius imagine, but in 330 or 331, as is manifest not only from
the testimony of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius,
but also from several circumstances of the affair.[184] The people
of Antioch raised a great sedition on this occasion, but the emperor
Constantine, being prepossessed by the slanders of the two bishops,
ordered St. Eustathius to repair to Constantinople, and thence sent
him into banishment. The holy pastor assembled the people before
his departure from Antioch, and exhorted them to remain steadfast
in the true doctrine: which exhortations were of great weight in
preserving many in the Catholic faith. St. Eustathius was banished
with several priests and deacons first into Thrace, as St. Jerome
and St. Chrysostom testify, and from thence into Illyricum, as
Theodoret adds. Socrates and Sozomen confound him with a priest of
Constantinople of the same name, when they tell us he was recalled
by Jovian, and survived till the year 370: for St. Eustathius
died thirty years before St. Meletius was advanced to the see of
Antioch in 360, as Theodoret testifies. Nor was he mentioned in
the council of Sardica, or in any of the disputes that followed;
and our best critics and historians conclude him to have been dead
in 337. Philippi, in Macedon, which, in the division of the empire
into diocesses, was comprised in that of Illyricum, was the place
of his death,[185] but his body was interred at Trajanopolis, in
Thrace, from which city Calandion, one of his successors, caused it
to be translated to Antioch, about the year 482, as Theodorus Lector
informs us.[186]
* * * * *
St. Eustathius bore his exile with patience and perfect submission,
and was under its disgraces and hardships greater and more glorious
than whilst his zeal and other virtues shone with the brightest
lustre on the patriarchal throne. We may please ourselves in those
actions in which we seem to be something; into which, however,
self-love, under a thousand forms, easily insinuates itself. But the
maxims of our Divine Redeemer teach us that no circumstances are so
happy for the exercise of the most heroic virtue as humiliations and
distresses when sent by Providence. These put our love to the test,
apply the remedy to the very root of our spiritual disorders, employ
the most perfect virtues of meekness, forgiveness, and patience, and
call forth our resignation, humility, and reliance on Providence; in
these trials we learn most perfectly to die to our passions, to know
ourselves, to feel our own nothingness and miseries, and with St.
Paul to take pleasure in our infirmities. Here all virtue is more
pure and perfect. A Christian suffering with patience and joy, bears
in spirit the nearest resemblance to his crucified Master, and enters
deepest into his most perfect sentiments of humility, meekness, and
love; for Jesus on his cross is the model by which his disciples are
bound to form themselves, which they nowhere can do with greater
advantage than when they are in a like state of desolation and
suffering.