EUSEBIO, saint. — Bishop of Laodicea, who lived in the 3rd century. As a deacon of Alexandria, he accompanied his bishop before the tribunal. He then distinguished himself in works of charity, especially during the plague of 260. Sent by his bishop to Syria to combat the heresy of Paolo di Samosata, he took part in the Synod of Antioch in 264. He was subsequently elected bishop of Laodicea, where he died (270–80). His feast is celebrated on 3 July or 4 October.
EUSEBIO, saint. — In the Martyrologium Hieronymianum, an E. who founded the titulus of the same name on the Esquiline is commemorated on 14 August. The Gelasian Sacramentary and the Gregorian Sacramentary of the 8th century recall him as a confessor and presbyter, whereas the present Roman Missal makes him a martyr.
At the beginning of the 6th century, when the positions of Pope Felice II (v.) became confused and reversed in Rome, a certain Orosio, claiming to be a relative of E. and an eyewitness, wrote a Passio according to which E., unwilling to communicate with Pope Liberiò after his adherence to the Arian heresy, gathered the faithful in his house. He was therefore summoned, at the instigation of Liberiò, before the tribunal of the emperor Constantius II, who had him confined in a narrow room in his own house, where he died on 14 August after seven months of imprisonment. He was buried in the cemetery of Callisto near the
tomb of Pope Sisto, where an inscription was also placed. Neither the tomb nor the inscription, despite searches, was ever found. The first certain mention of the titulus E. dates from 474, but it must in all probability go back to an earlier time; at the end of the 6th century (593), as in other similar cases, it had by then been transformed into titulus A. E.