- St. Eustathius redirects here; see also Saint Eustace
Saint Eustace, also known as Eustachius or Eustathius, was a legendary Christian martyr who lived in the 2nd century AD. A martyr of that name is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, which, however, judges that the legend recounted about him is "completely fabulous." For that reason...
.
Eustathius of Antioch, sometimes surnamed
the Great, was a
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
and
patriarch of AntiochPatriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
in the 4th century.
He was a native of
SideSide was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, in the region of Pamphylia, in what is now Antalya province, on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey...
in
PamphyliaIn ancient geography, Pamphylia was the region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus . It was bounded on the north by Pisidia and was therefore a country of small extent, having a coast-line of only about 75 miles with a breadth of...
. About 320 he was bishop of
BeroeaAleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
, and he became
patriarch of AntiochPatriarch of Antioch is a traditional title held by the Bishop of Antioch. As the traditional "overseer" of the first gentile Christian community, the position has been of prime importance in the church from its earliest period...
shortly before the
Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
in 325. In that assembly he distinguished himself zealously against the
AriansArianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
, though the
Allocutio ad Imperatorem with which he has been credited is hardly genuine.
His anti–Arian polemic against
Eusebius of CaesareaEusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
made him unpopular among his fellow bishops in the East, and a synod convened at Antioch in 330 deposed him for adultery, which was confirmed by the emperor.
For instance, in the dispute with Eustathius of Antioch, who opposed the growing influence of Origen and his practice of an allegorical exegesis of scripture, seeing in his theology the roots of Arianism, Eusebius, an admirer of
OrigenOrigen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
, was reproached by Eustathius for deviating from the Nicene faith, who was charged in turn with
SabellianismIn Christianity, Sabellianism, is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.The term Sabellianism comes from...
. Eustathius was accused, condemned, and deposed at a synod in Antioch. The people of Antioch rebelled against this action, while the anti-Eustathians proposed Eusebius as the new bishop, but he declined. He was banished to
TrajanopolisTrajanopolis or Traianopolis can refer to:* Traianopolis , a city in Phrygia Pacatiana* Traianopolis , a city in western Thrace...
in
ThraceThrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, where he died, probably about 337, though possibly not until 370.
The only complete work by Eustathius is the
De Engastrimytho contra Origenem (ed. by A. Jahn in
Texte und Untersuchungen, ii. 4; J. H. Declerck in
Corpus Christianorum - Series Graeca no. 51, 2002), which discusses the episode of the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel. Other fragments are enumerated by G. F. Loofs in
Herzog-Hauck’s Realencyklopädie.
The Commentary on the Hexameron attributed to him in the manuscripts is not authentic.
External links