Western Fatherswriter
Who he was
- Native of Sardinia, cleric at Rome, after 344 he became the first bishop of Vercelli; an opponent of Arianism.
- At Libenus’ request, Bishop of Rome, Eusebius was (with Lucifer of Cagliari) a leader of the western supporters of Nicaea after the Arianizing Synod of Arles in 353.
- At the Council of Milan in 355, he resisted the condemnation of St. Athanasius and asked the bishops to sign the Creed of Nicaea. As a result, he was deposed by the Council and was exiled to the East (Scythopolis in Palestine, then to Thebaid in Egypt) from 355 to 361.
- After he was set free in 362 at the accession of Julian to the throne, he participated in the Council of Alexandria in 362.
- In 362, he signed St. Athanasius’ Tome “de Antiochenes” and carried it to Antioch.
- He appears again in 364 in Milan, engaged together with Hilary in an unsuccessful attempt to expel the local Arian bishop,Auxentius.13
What he wrote
- He translated Eusebius of Caesarea’s commentary on the Psalms, but this work has been lost.
- He is considered by some to be the author of the famous Codex Vercellensis, a pre-Jerome Latin translation of the Gospels.
- Three of his letters are extant: - The first letter is drawn from a correspondence among several parties regarding the Council of Milan. - The second letter was written and sent secretly to his faithful at Vercelli from Scythopolis where he was being virtually held prisoner by Patrophilus, the Arian sympathizer who was bishop of that city. - In the third letter, Eusebius congratulates Gregory of Elvira who had resisted pressure from Hosius and refused to enter into communion with bishops sympathetic to the Arian cause.
- A work on the Trinity is not authentic.