St. Eusebius of Vercelli

St. Eusebius of Vercelli was born around 283 on the island of Sardinia; hagiographical tradition holds that his father died a confessor of the faith and that his widowed mother brought the family to Rome, where Eusebius was raised and served the Church as a lector. His learning and holiness became widely known, and around 345 he was chosen the first bishop of Vercelli in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. As bishop, Eusebius introduced something new in the Western Church: he gathered the clergy of his cathedral into a common life of prayer, poverty, and discipline, becoming the first Western bishop to unite the monastic life with the pastoral ministry of the clergy. This community life of priests became a model later invoked by canons regular, and it formed a generation of holy clergy for the churches of northern Italy. Eusebius's fidelity was tested in the Arian crisis. At the Council of Milan in 355 he refused, despite the pressure of the emperor Constantius II, to condemn St. Athanasius or compromise the Nicene confession of Christ's full divinity. For this he was sent into exile—first to Scythopolis in Palestine, where he suffered harsh treatment at Arian hands, then to Cappadocia and to the Thebaid in Egypt. Freed after the death of Constantius in 361, he took part in the Council of Alexandria of 362 and labored alongside St. Hilary of Poitiers to restore the Nicene faith in the West. Eusebius returned at last to Vercelli and shepherded his church in peace until his death on August 1, 371. Because of his sufferings for the faith he was long honored with the veneration given to martyrs, though he died peacefully. His memorial in the General Roman Calendar is August 2, and his relics rest in the cathedral of Vercelli, of which he remains the patron and father in faith.