Saint of the Day – 15 March – Saint Eusebius II of Vercelli (Died c520) Bishop

Saint of the Day – 15 March – Saint Eusebius II of Vercelli (Died c520) Bishop of Vercelli, Italy. Also known as – Eusebio II.

Neither the volume printed in 1581, edited by the Eusebian Chapter which contained the ancient litanies and the Offices of the Cathedral of Vercelli, nor the Eusebian Calendar, published in 1676, mention him.

What is certain, is that under this portrait, part of the ancient series of the first 40 Bishops of Vercelli, painted in the Cathedral, one could read his name, with the ranking of “the Second.”

Now let us frame the historical period of his Episcopate — to the left, i.e. a predecessor, is the Bishop Emilian, who ruled the Diocese of Vercelli at the end of the 5th Century (Died 501), was succeeded by a Bishop whose name is unknown. Then immediately after came our Eusebius II, who, in fact was the 12th Bishop of the See. Some local historians believe his Episcopacy to have occurred from 515 to 534 but without proof of this supposition.

The Bollandist hagiographers, who placed his memory on 15 March, established the date of his death around 520 and expressed themselves with his praise, saying that, following the example of the Diocesan Protobishop, St Eusebius I of Vercelli (Died 1 August 371), his namesake, fulfilled his pastoral duties with the utmost diligence and charity.

And Bishop Ferrero also expressed himself in these terms, in his work on the Bishops of Vercelli,which he published in the second edition, in 1609.