Eusebius of Phoenicia

The Holy Martyr Eusebius of Phoenicia

Martyr

Eusebius was a Christian of Phoenicia who, in a time of persecution, came forward of his own accord to confess Christ before the persecutors and was beheaded. He is known only from the brief notices of the synaxaria, which transmit neither the year of his contest nor the name of the ruler under whom he suffered; his memory is kept on September 21.

The whole surviving record of Eusebius is a synaxarion line. The Greek tradition remembers him as a man whose life matched his name — eusebēs, the pious one — and the verses of the day play on it: the impious (dyssebeis) slay by the sword Eusebius, who lived piously (eusebōs) and was Christ's friend. The fuller notices in the later Greek compilations add that during a persecution in Phoenicia he presented himself voluntarily before the authorities, confessed Christ, and after tortures was beheaded. No date, city, or persecutor is transmitted; the era of his contest is unknown, and this entry accordingly asserts none.

Feast and commemoration

September 21 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 4), at the leavetaking of the Elevation of the Cross. The Russian calendar for the day joins him with the martyr Priscus in a single line ("martyrs Eusebius and Priscus"); the Greek synaxarion lists them separately. He has no proper service, and no proper hymns are transmitted.

Iconography

No pre-modern image of this martyr has been identified; a the list of icons still being sought listing stands in his place. He would be depicted as a martyr in the classic type: in chiton and himation, holding the martyr's cross.

Disputed questions

Not to be confused with the martyred brothers Eusebius, Nestabus and Zeno of Gaza (under Julian the Apostate), whom the Greek synaxaria commemorate on this same September 21 and whose entry is pending, nor with the many other sainted bearers of this common name (Eusebius of Samosata, June 22, among others).