St. Eusebius of Vercelli (283-371) was born of a noble family on the island of Sardinia, where his father is said to have died in prison for the faith. His mother, Restituta, carried Eusebius and his sister to Rome, where Eusebius grew up and was instituted lector by Pope St. Sylvester.
Eusebius went to Vercelli and served the faithful there so well that when the episcopal chair became vacant in about 345, he was chosen unanimously by the clergy and people to fill it.
Bishop Eusebius saw that the best means to labour for the sanctification of the faithful was to have a zealous clergy. He and his clergy lived in community, in a manner similar to that later developed by the Canons Regular.
Eusebius formed his priests so well that other churches earnestly demanded his disciples to become their bishops. Many of those bishops would become saints.
During a General Audience, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Inspired by St Athanasius—who had written the Life of St Anthony, the father of monasticism in the East—[Eusebius] founded a priestly community in Vercelli that resembled a monastic community. This coenobium impressed upon the clergy of Northern Italy a significant hallmark of apostolic holiness and inspired important episcopal figures such as Limenius and Honoratus, successors of Eusebius in Vercelli, Gaudentius in Novara, Exuperantius in Tortona, Eustasius in Aosta, Eulogius in Ivrea and Maximus in Turin, all venerated by the Church as saints.”
Eusebius was a dedicated bishop who personally instructed his flock. According Father Alban Butler, author of The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints, “Many, moved by his exhortations, embraced virginity to serve God in purity of heart, without being divided by the cares or pleasures of the world. In a short time, the whole city of Vercelli appeared inflamed with the fire of divine love which Jesus Christ came to bring on earth, and which he ardently desired to see kindled in all hearts. Convicted by the force of the truth which the zealous pastor preached, persuaded by the sweetness and charity of his conduct, and still more powerfully excited by his examples, sinners encouraged themselves to a change of their lives, and all were animated to advance more and more in virtue.”
Eusebius defended St. Athanasius and the Nicene Creed against Arianism. He was thus exiled by Constantius II. He was in Scythopolis, Palestine between 355 and 360. He founded a monastic community there with a small group of disciples. After 360, Eusebius was exiled to Cappadocia and the Thebaid, where he suffered serious physical ill-treatment. Towards the end of 361, Constantius II died, and the banished bishops were allowed to return to their sees. Benedict XVI said, “Eusebius was able to exercise his episcopal ministry for another 10 years, until he died, creating an exemplary relationship with his city which did not fail to inspire the pastoral service of other Bishops of Northern Italy, such as St Ambrose of Milan and St Maximus of Turin.”
St. Ambrose was an admirer of Eusebius. Pope Benedict XVI said, “Ambrose’s admiration for Eusebius was based above all on the fact that the Bishop of Vercelli governed his Diocese with the witness of his life: ‘With the austerity of fasting he governed his Church’. Indeed, Ambrose was also fascinated, as he himself admits, by the monastic ideal of the contemplation of God which, in the footsteps of the Prophet Elijah, Eusebius had pursued.”
Eusebius died at Vercelli on August 1, 371. Today Holy Mother Church commemorates him each year on Aug. 2 with this prayer: “Lead us, Lord God, to imitate the constancy of Saint Eusebius in affirming the divinity of your Son, so that, by preserving the faith he taught as your Bishop, we may merit a share in the very life of your Son.”
歐瑟伯啟發聖賢
韋爾切利的聖歐瑟伯出生於撒丁島的一個貴族家庭；相傳他的父親因堅守信仰而死在獄中，母親列秩都雅攜同他和他的妹妹出走羅馬；因此，歐瑟伯在羅馬長大，從教宗聖思維領受讀經品。
聖歐瑟伯到韋爾切利服務。由於他卓越的表現，當韋爾切利的主教座懸空時，他被一致推舉繼任該地區的主教。
歐瑟伯主教理解到信眾的聖化，是因聖職人員熱心的驅使；他與轄下的聖職人員，一起過群體的聖善生活。在他培育出來的神父，都被其他教區爭相羅致，成為主教及成為聖人。
教宗本篤十六世曾在公開接見訪客時說：「受到聖達修的啟發──他說寫了東方隱修之父聖當的行實── 歐瑟伯在韋爾切利成立了一個近似隱修院的司鐸團體，成為使徒聖的標誌，並啟迪了意大利北部很多顯赫的主教，如他的繼任人依萬紐和沃諾肋奧、諾瓦拉的加德修斯、托爾托納的艾蘇畢拿修、奧斯塔的艾斯坦修、伊夫雷亞的厄奧羅祖修、都靈的馬克西穆斯，都被教會尊為聖人。」
歐瑟伯是盡職的主教，親自教導他的羊群。雅伯.本肋神父形容「很多人被歐瑟伯的勸誡所感動而立志守貞，能促使一顆純潔的心侍奉天主，不為世事俗樂分心。短期內，韋爾切利全城像被耶穌帶來世上並渴望在每人心中點燃的聖愛所燃燒。受到這位熱心牧者宣講真理的推動，並被他行為的甘飴和愛德所說服，而更重要的是被他的榜様所激發，罪人都自願改革生活，眾人都趨重修德。」
歐瑟伯維護聖達修和尼西亞信經，攻擊亞略主義，因而被君士坦修皇帝的放逐。355年至360年他在巴肋力坦的史托頗里，成立了一個小小的隱修團體；360年又被放逐到卡帕多細雅和提拜德，身體受到一連串的摧殘。361年君士坦修皇帝駕崩，被放逐的主教返回原轄的教區。教宗本篤十六世說：「歐瑟伯後仍能在他的教區服務多十年，直到他的逝世。他與韋爾切利城建立緊密的關係，啟發了其他意大利北部主教的牧民工作，如米蘭的聖安博和都靈的聖馬克西穆斯。」
聖安博極其欽佩聖歐瑟伯。教宗本篤十六世說：「安博非常欽佩歐瑟伯，因為他以生活的見證來治理韋爾切利教區：『他以克苦的齋戒治理他的教區。』」安博非常欽佩歐瑟伯跟隨厄里亞先知的腳步來奉行隱修的理想------默觀天主。
371年8月1日，歐瑟伯在韋爾切利逝世。每年的8月2日，慈母聖教會均誦唸這經文：「主、天主，請帶領我們效法歐瑟伯對祢聖子天主性的堅信，保存他對我們信德的教導，以能完全獲享祢聖子的生命。」