CECILIA EUSEPI. — Pious virgin, born at Monte-Romano (Viterbo) on 17 February 1910, died at Nepi on 1 October 1928. At the age of thirteen she entered as an aspirant the postulancy among the Mantellate of Pistoia, but returned home in 1926 due to continuous illnesses, which ended in her death. She retired to her family’s estate at La Massa near Nepi, edifying all with her purity, love for the Eucharist, devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows, and patience in suffering and trials. The process for her beatification has been initiated.
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**EUSTACE and companions, saints, martyrs.** — Eudoxia, Placidus, Eustathius, Placidus, Eustathius, Theopista, his wife, Theopistus, and Agapius, their sons: no reliable historical information about them has been preserved. They cannot be located in any way; if their historicity is admitted, they should be considered martyrs of Eastern origin. The scene of the prodigious conversion of Eustace is said to have taken place on a high crag (1,200 meters) where the sanctuary of Santa Maria in Vulturella, or Mentorella, stands above Ceciliano (Tivoli), but this is a late medieval legend that is not credible.
The hagiographic texts concerning them, in Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Syriac, and vernacular (BHG, 6,41-43; BHL, 2760-71; supplement, p. 126; BHL, 298-99; Monteverdi, II, pp. 27-101), are various redactions of a popular Roman romance, written by a Greek-speaking author who drew inspiration from popular tales, some of which find parallels in Indian legends. The romance consists of three parts: the first recounts the conversion of the wealthy Roman general of Trajan’s time, Placidus (later Eustace), and his family. Placidus converts after a vision during a hunt; he sees a luminous cross with the image of Christ between the antlers of a stag that has taken refuge on a high rock, and Christ speaks to him through the animal’s soul. At baptism, he takes the name Eustace, which later becomes Eustace. The second part describes the background of his upbringing and the adventurous events that befall its individual members, who eventually reunite, while Eustace, sought by the Emperor, is leading a campaign against the barbarians. The third part is devoted to the martyrdom of Eustace and his family. Eustace refuses to follow the Emperor Hadrian, who intends to offer a sacrifice to Apollo in thanksgiving for victory. The Emperor has Eustace and his family enclosed in a brazen bull and roasted alive.
**Cult.** — The veneration of Eustace developed in the late Middle Ages under the influence of the legend. The earliest attestation is the church erected in his honor at the beginning of the 8th century on the ruins of the Neroniane-Alexandrine baths, known as the diaconia of Sant’Erasmo, basilica of the blessed martyr Eustace (Lib. Pont., II, pp. 11, 75), to which was later added the appellation *iuxta platana* or *iuxta templum Agrippae* (cf. Ch. Huelsen, *Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo*, Firenze 1927, p. 251; R. Krautheimer, *Corpus basilicarum Christianarum Romae*, I, fasc. III, Città del Vaticano 1940, p. 216; V. Diaconia). In ancient liturgical books, his feast appears on 20 September only in the Gospel lectionaries of the pure Roman type (E) from the mid-8th century (cf. Th. Klauser, *Das römischen Capitulare Evangeliorum*, Münster in W. 1935, p. 124; cf. also pp. 85, 181), while it is secondary in most Sacramentaries and in the Gerontian Martyrology (except for the Corbie codex of the 11th century, on 1 November). The name of Eustace and his family appears in a private litany contained in the *Asterius* of the monastery of Notre-Dame de Soissons, from the end of the 8th century (cf. M. Coens, *Anciennes litanies des Saints*, in *Analecta Bollandiana*, 62 [1941], pp. 133, 139). In the Martyrology of Usuard, he is recorded on 2 November (cf. ed. J.-B. Du Sollier, in *Acta SS. Inni*, VII, Venezia 1746, pp. 64-45), a date on which he is commemorated in most missals (from the 11th century) and breviaries (from the 12th century) surveyed by V. Leroquais (cf. *Les sacramentaires et missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France*, III, Paris 1924, p. 363 [index]; *Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France*, V, 1934 [index], on 20 September [8 breviaries], others on 3, 4, 5, 9 November, some on 20 May, one on 16 September; cf. also A. Ebner, *Iter Italicum*, Freiburg in Br. 1866 [index]). In the Synaxaria, the feast of Eustace and his companions is placed on 20 September, and in Constantinople their synaxis took place in their church *eis to Auzeterion* (Synax. Constantinop., col. 61); the same date is recorded in the Marble Calendar of Naples (cf. ed. D. Mallardo, Roma 1947, p. 155) and in the present Roman liturgical books, where the date of 20 September prevailed only from the 16th century. He is numbered among the Holy Helpers (v.). In Paris there exists a magnificent 16th-century church, already known in the 13th century; he is the patron of hunters and gamekeepers.
**Iconography.** — The hunting scene with the vision of the Cross between the antlers of the stag is the iconographic motif most frequently depicted by artists, such as Pisanello (National Gallery, London), Perugino (Volpi collection, Florence), and others. Dürer represented Eustace as a warrior with a banner bearing the head of the stag with the Cross between its antlers, as a heraldic device (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The stag alone with Christ between its antlers was depicted by the sculptor Guglielmo in the panel of the wooden altar of Vulturella (12th-13th century). In Byzantine miniatures of the 9th-11th centuries, Eustace is depicted in a group studied by L. Mariès (*L’irruption des Saints dans l’illustration des Psauliers byzantins*, in *Analecta Bollandiana*, 68 [1950], p. 155) in the *Menologion* of Basil II (f. 53, phot. ed., Torino 1907, martyrdom scene). Various episodes of the legend are found in the frescoes of the abbey of Westminster (1245), in the stained glass of the cathedrals of Chartres, Le Mans, Sens, Tours, etc., in the interesting miniatures of the *Breviary of the Duke of Bedford* from the first half of the 15th century (cf. V. JALABERT, LOUIS, op. cit., III, 345), and in the frescoes of the refectory of Santa Croce in Florence (1472), to mention only the principal monuments. — Vedi tav. LVI.