From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Of the Good, Peaceable Man (3)   
      
      It is no great thing to associate with the good and gentle, for   
   such association is naturally pleasing.  Everyone enjoys a peaceful   
   life and prefers persons of congenial habits. But to be able to live   
   at peace with harsh and perverse men, or with the undisciplined and   
   those who irritate us, is a great grace, a praiseworthy and manly   
   thing.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Book 2, Chapter 3   
      
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   2 August – Saint Eusebius of Vercelli   
      
   (c 283-371)   
   Bishop, Confessor,  Founder of monasticism in his region – born in c   
   283 at Sardinia and died on 1 August 371 in Vercelli, Italy.   
   Patronages – Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Eusebius, Berzo   
   Demo, Italy, Piedmont, Italy, Vercelli, Italy.   
      
   Saint Eusebius was born of a noble family on the island of Sardinia,   
   where his father is said to have died in prison for the Faith. He was   
   brought up in Rome in the practice of piety and studied in Vercelli, a   
   city of Piedmont. Eusebius was ordained a priest there and served the   
   Church of Vercelli with such zeal that when the episcopal chair became   
   vacant he was unanimously chosen, by both clergy and people, to fill   
   it.   
      
   The holy bishop saw that the best and principal means to labour   
   effectually for the edification and sanctification of his people, was   
   to have a zealous clergy. Saint Ambrose assures us that he was the   
   first bishop who in the West, united the monastic life with the   
   clerical, living and having his clergy live almost like the monks of   
   the East in the deserts. They shared a common life of prayer and   
   penance, in a single residence, that of the bishop, as did the clergy   
   of Saint Augustine in his African see. For this reason, the Canons   
   Regular of St Augustine, honour him along with Augustine as their   
   founder.   
   Saint Eusebius was very careful to instruct his flock in the maxims of   
   the Gospel. The force of the truth which he preached, together with   
   his example, brought many sinners to a change of life.   
      
   When a Council was held in Italy, under the influence of the Emperor   
   Constans and the Arian heretics, with the intention of condemning   
   Saint Athanasius (297-373), bishop of Alexandria and Doctor of the   
   Church, St Eusebius courageously resisted the heretics. He attempted   
   to have all present sign the Nicene Creed but the paper was torn out   
   of his hands and his pen was broken. With St Dionysus of Milan, he   
   refused to sign the condemnation of the bishop of Alexandria. The   
   Emperor therefore had him banished to Scythopolis in Palestine with St   
   Dionysus of Milan, then to Cappadocia, where St Dionysus died and   
   finally, he was taken to the Upper Thebaid in Egypt, where he suffered   
   grievously. The Arians of these places loaded him with outrages and   
   treated him cruelly and St Eusebius confounded them, wherever they   
   were.   
      
   At the death of Constans in 361, he was permitted to return to his   
   diocese, where he continued to combat Arianism,  with St Hilary of   
   Poitiers (315-368) another Doctor of the Church. Two of his letters,   
   written from his dungeons, are still extant, as well as a part of the   
   Codex which is believed to be by him, have survived. One of the   
   letters is addressed to his church, the other to the bishop of Elvira   
   to encourage him to oppose a fallen heretic and not fear the power of   
   princes.   
      
   Although in the middle ages he was sometimes referred to as a martyr,   
   due primarily to two panegyrics appended to the works of Saint   
   Ambrose, this was more to honour the sufferings he endured in standing   
   up for his faith. Later legends of his martyrdom have no historical   
   basis.   
      
   In a General Audience in October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI observed:   
   Therefore, Pastors, Eusebius said, must urge the faithful not to   
   consider the cities of the world as their permanent dwelling place but   
   to seek the future city, the definitive heavenly Jerusalem. This   
   “eschatological reserve” enables Pastors and faithful, to preserve the   
   proper scale of values, without ever submitting to the fashions of the   
   moment and the unjust claims of the current political power. The   
   authentic scale of values – Eusebius’ whole life seems to say – does   
   not come from emperors of the past, or of today but from Jesus   
   Christ….   
   He died in 371. His relics are in a shrine in the Cathedral of   
   Vercelli which is dedicated to him. The Statue below is on the   
   Colonnade at St Peter’s, in the Vatican.   
      
   https://anastpaul.com/2019/08/02/   
      
      
   Thought for the Day – 2 August – The Memorial of St Eusebius of   
   Vercelli (c 283-371)   
   Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI’s   
   Catechesis on St Eusebius, October 2007   
      
   Ambrose’s admiration for Eusebius was based, above all, on the fact   
   that the Bishop of Vercelli governed his Diocese with the witness of   
   his life:  “With the austerity of fasting he governed his Church.”   
   Indeed, Ambrose was also fascinated, as he himself admits, by the   
   monastic ideal of the contemplation of God which, in the footsteps of   
   the Prophet Elijah, Eusebius had pursued. First of all, Ambrose   
   commented, the Bishop of Vercelli gathered his clergy in vita communis   
   and educated its members in “the observance of the monastic rule,   
   although they lived in the midst of the city.” The Bishop and his   
   clergy were to share the problems of their fellow citizens and did so   
   credibly, precisely by cultivating, at the same time, a different   
   citizenship, that of Heaven (cf. Heb 13: 14). And thus, they really   
   built true citizenship and true solidarity among all the citizens of   
   Vercelli.   
   While Eusebius was adopting the cause of the sancta plebs of Vercelli,   
   he lived a monk’s life in the heart of the city, opening the city to   
   God. This trait, though, in no way diminished his exemplary pastoral   
   dynamism. It seems among other things that he set up parishes in   
   Vercelli for an orderly and stable ecclesial service and promoted   
   Marian shrines for the conversion of the pagan populations in the   
   countryside. This “monastic feature,” however, conferred a special   
   dimension on the Bishop’s relationship with his hometown. Just like   
   the Apostles, for whom Jesus prayed at his Last Supper, the Pastors   
   and faithful of the Church “are of the world” (Jn 17: 11), but not “in   
   the world”. Therefore, Pastors, Eusebius said, must urge the faithful   
   not to consider the cities of the world as their permanent dwelling   
   place but to seek the future city, the definitive heavenly Jerusalem.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)