Our Lady of Mount Carmel

When Saint Philogonius of Antioch died c. 323, the weak and wavering bishop Paulinus succeeded him for a short time as patriarch. Saint Eustace was called to replace Paulinus, but he opposed the transfer to the third most important see because of his zeal for the purity of the faith, the quality most needed at that time in Antioch. He felt that the transfer of bishops leads to dangerous temptations of ambition and avarice. In various ways, Eustace was forced to accept the patriarchal see of Antioch against his will.

He attended the Council of Nicaea and concurred with his fellow bishops to forbid all translations of bishops from one see to another. During, before, and after the council, Eustace was a firm opponent of Arianism both in his preaching and in his writing.

Eustace was an outstanding bishop. Upon returning to Antioch, he convened a synod to unite the factions that had developed. He judiciously examined the character and faith of those seeking ordination. Many he rejected later became leaders of Arianism. He sent capable, virtuous men into other dioceses within his patriarchate to teach and encourage the faithful.

In a impolitic move, Eustace raised violent opposition against Eusebius of Caesarea, a suffragan bishop of Antioch, who was one of the Arian leaders and close to the throne. Together with Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, the bishop of Caesarea plotted to remove Saint Eustace from his see. They accused him of altering the Nicene Creed.

Eusebius of Nicomedia went to Jerusalem and there gathered like- minded Arians, including Theognis of Nicea, Eusebius of Caesarea, Patrophilus of Scythopolis, Actius of Lydda, Theodotus of Laudicea, and other. They returned to Antioch and assembled a synod in 331. They obtained the false testimony of a women, who said that Eustace had fathered her child. Eustace protested his innocence and alleged that tradition requires two or more witnesses before convicting a priest. Before her death she did declare before many priests that she had been bribed to make the charge and that Patriarch Eustace was innocent, the father of the child was another Eustace, a brazier.

The Arians also accused him of Sabellianism. Although the Catholic bishops present loudly protested against the injustice of these proceedings, the Arians pronounced a sentence of deposition against the saint. Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis hastened to inform Emperor Constantine of the decision. The people of Antioch raised a great sedition on this occasion, but Constantine was open to hearing the slanders presented by his friends. He ordered Eustace to Constantinople.

Before his departure from Antioch, the holy pastor assembled the people and exhorted them to remain steadfast in the true doctrine. Constantine banished Eustace, together with several of his priests and deacons, first into Thrace, as Saint Jerome and Saint John Chrysostom testify, then into Illyricum, as Theodoret adds (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).

The year of his abbatial election, he went to Rome with Saint Burchard and secured the approval from Pope Saint Zachary of Pepin as king of the Franks. Fulrad acted for Pepin in 756 in turning over the exarchate of Ravenna to the Holy See, the early seeds of the Papal States, and helped in setting up the Frankish kings as supporters of the Holy See rather than the Byzantine emperor, a move that was to have an incalculable impact on the future of Europe. Under his able guidance Saint-Denis flourished as one of the outstanding monasteries of Europe (Benedictines, Delaney).

From his youth he was filled with faith, and from his faith he learned hope, and from his contemplation of the cross he learned charity. Led by the cross he went to Cordova to study Latin, theology, canon law, liturgy, and all that was needed to become a priest. He was ordained a deacon at Cordova.

He lodged in the church of Saint Acisclus, martyred under Diocletian, and it was to Saint Acisclus that he prayed for help, as if he already knew what his own fate was to be. He prayed to the saint fervently, constantly, appealing to him on the fellowship of the cross, not yet knowing just what it was that drew him on. Nevertheless, he answered the call, acknowledging the smallness of his understanding in the embrace of divine logic; and gradually, as he prayed, his resolution grew, his hesitation lessened and he prepared--not without fear--to answer the call of Peter, Wallabonsus, Sabinian, Wistremundus, Habentius, and Jeremias, all of them martyred by the Moors.

They were claiming him as one of them, and Sisenandus put himself into the hands of Jesus Christ. The Moors under Abderrahman II had just unleashed a new epidemic of persecutions against the Christians, but Sisenandus had put himself in the hands of Jesus Christ, so how could he be other than joyful?

He was imprisoned, but prison did not deprive him of his freedom for with the cross as his key no doors were locked to him. He lived without thought for the morrow and prayed for the conversion of his guards. He wrote to one of his friends, but had to break off the letter and end it with a cross, for he knew before they arrived that his guards were coming to take him to his death.

God had seen his strength and courage and found him worthy enough to know that his death was coming and to go out and meet it. When the guards came and dragged him out of the prison with insults and blows, he made the sign of the cross as if he were entering a church. And when he was taken in front of the large crowd to be bound and beheaded, he crossed himself for the last time (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).