Hieromartyr Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata (380)
The Hieromartyr Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata, faithfully defended the Creed adopted at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, for which the Arians persecuted him furiously. More than once they drove the holy hierarch from his see and shut him up in prison. When the Emperor Constantius (337–361), the patron of the Arians, learned that Eusebius was keeping the council’s decree on the election of the Orthodox archbishop Meletius to the see of Antioch, he ordered the saint to send it to him. The blessed father refused. The enraged emperor sent word to him that if he did not hand over the act, his right hand would be cut off. Eusebius held out both hands to the messenger and said: “Cut them off, but the council’s decree, in which the malice and lawlessness of the Arians are exposed, I will not give you!” The autocrat, astonished at the hierarch’s boldness, did him no harm.
After Constantius, Julian the Apostate (361–363) ascended the throne and began an open persecution of the Christians. Disguised in a soldier’s clothing, Saint Eusebius travelled secretly through Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, strengthening the Orthodox in their trials. After the death of Julian the Apostate the pious King Jovian (363–364) came to the throne. Peace settled on the life of the Church. Archbishop Meletius, having returned from exile, on the advice of Eusebius convened a local council in Antioch in 363. It was attended by twenty-seven bishops, who confirmed the Creed adopted at the First Ecumenical Council. After Jovian the Arian Valens (364–378) became emperor, and he sentenced Eusebius to exile and imprisonment in Thrace. On receiving the king’s order, the blessed father left the city by night so as to avoid an uprising of his flock. The Arian Eunomius was installed in the see of Samosata, but the people would not accept the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The heretic soon realised that he would never be able to gather a flock of his own.
Having ascended the throne, the Emperor Gratian (375–383) brought back from exile the Orthodox hierarchs oppressed by the Arians. Eusebius too returned to Samosata and went on setting the life of the Church in order. Around 380 the holy father came to the Arian city of Doliche to hand over its see to the Orthodox bishop Marinus. An Arian woman threw a tile at him from a roof and broke the head of the Lord’s chosen one. The dying Eusebius, like the Saviour, forgave his murderer and asked that she not be punished. The blessed hierarch’s body was carried to Samosata.
