Eusebios of Samosata

Bishop Eusebios of Samosata.

St. Eusebios, Bishop of Samosata, was one of the great champions of the Nicene faith in the fourth century, a friend and fellow struggler of St. Basil the Great. In the years when Arianism held the empire, he traveled through the East, tradition says even in disguise, strengthening the faithful and ordaining Orthodox clergy, and for this he was driven into exile under the emperor Valens.

Returning after the persecution eased, he met a martyr's end around the year 380, struck down by a tile hurled by a woman of the heretics as he entered a city to install an Orthodox bishop. He is commemorated on June 22.

Feast day

On the New Calendar, Eusebios of Samosata is commemorated on June 22. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on July 5 of the civil calendar.

Who celebrates a name day

People with these names keep their name day on this feast:

Eusebios, Evsevios

Also commemorated on June 22

• Zeno and Zenas of Philadelphia

  Martyr, Ζήνων και Ζηνάς

  Holy Martyrs Zeno and his servant Zenas of Philadelphia in Arabia, beheaded under Maximian.

• Galaction, Juliana and Saturninus

  Martyr, Γαλακτίων, Ιουλιανή και Σατορνίνος

  Holy Martyrs Galaction, and Juliana with her son Saturninus, who suffered at Constantinople.

• Gregory the Teacher, Metropolitan of Wallachia

  Hierarch, Γρηγόριος ο Διδάσκαλος

  Saint Gregory Dascalul, Metropolitan of Wallachia, translator of the Fathers and disciple of the tradition of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky.

Icon: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.