Saint Eusebius of Vercelli

Saint Eusebius of Vercelli was the first bishop of Vercelli in Piedmont and one of the most steadfast defenders of the Nicene faith in the fourth century. Benedict XVI called him the first bishop of northern Italy of whom we have reliable information. The Church celebrates his memorial on August 2.

He was born in Sardinia; the year of his birth is unknown, and the sources point to the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century. As a child he moved with his family to Rome, where he became a lector and joined the Roman clergy at a time when the Church was shaken by the Arian heresy, which denied the full divinity of Christ. In 345 he was elected bishop of Vercelli. The diocese, especially in the countryside, was still largely pagan, so the new bishop at once set about evangelizing it.

Following the example of Saint Athanasius, who had written the life of Saint Anthony the Abbot, Eusebius lived with his clergy in a community resembling a monastery. Saint Ambrose later wrote that the bishop of Vercelli trained his priests to keep the monastic rule even though they lived in the middle of the city, and that he governed his Church by the example of strict fasting. From this setting came holy bishops of northern Italy, among them Gaudentius of Novara, Eustasius of Aosta and Maximus of Turin. According to tradition, Eusebius also founded the Marian shrine of Oropa.

He firmly defended the creed of the Council of Nicaea, which professes that the Son is consubstantial with the Father. Emperor Constantius II, who favored the Arians, sought to have Saint Athanasius condemned at the synod of Milan in 355. Eusebius refused to sign the sentence and was sent into exile, like Dionysius of Milan and Lucifer of Cagliari. He was held first at Scythopolis in Palestine, where he gathered a small community of disciples, then in Cappadocia and in the Thebaid in Egypt, where he was harshly mistreated.

From exile he wrote to the faithful of Vercelli, Novara, Ivrea and Tortona; three of his letters, recognized as authentic, have survived. In them he asked the faithful to guard the faith, to preserve harmony and to persevere in prayer, and he greeted even those who were outside the Church but regarded him with affection. After the death of Constantius in 361, Emperor Julian the Apostate allowed the exiled bishops to return. In 362 Eusebius took part in the synod of Alexandria, to which Saint Athanasius had invited him, and afterward he visited Churches of the East. He returned to Vercelli in 363, after eight years of exile.

To the end of his life he strengthened the Nicene faith in his diocese and in northern Italy. He died in Vercelli on August 1, most probably in 371. Around 394 Saint Ambrose wrote to the Church of Vercelli that so great a man deserved to be chosen by the whole Church. Although he did not die a martyr’s death, he was once also venerated as a martyr, that is, a witness to the faith, because of the sufferings of his exile. His veneration goes back to antiquity, and in 1961 John XXIII proclaimed him patron of Piedmont.