Free English Translation
Epigram on Saint Eusebius
Epigramma de S. Eusebio
~1 min read · by Anonymous
About Epigram on Saint Eusebius
This anonymous epigram of eight lines commemorates Eusebius, who held the Roman see briefly around 308 AD amid a bitter dispute over the lapsed, Christians who had sacrificed to idols during persecution and later sought reconciliation. It contrasts Heraclius, who forbade the lapsed to grieve over their sins, with Eusebius, who insisted they weep over their crimes before readmission, a conflict so sharp that the Roman community split into factions marked by sedition, slaughter, and strife. Both men were driven from the city by the reigning emperor, and the poem closes by praising Eusebius for bearing exile gladly and dying on the shore of Sicily, having kept the peace of the Church inviolate to the end.
By Anonymous. Collected in Patrologia Latina, Volume 6.
Epigram on St. Eusebius
Heraclius forbade the fallen to grieve over their sins;
Eusebius taught the wretched to weep over their crimes.
The people are torn into factions as fury swells,
Sedition, slaughter, war, discord, strife ensue.
Driven out alike by the savagery of a tyrant as an example,
While the shepherd kept the covenants of peace inviolate,
He bore exile altogether gladly under that judge,
And on the Trinacrian shore he left behind the world and life.
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