Saint of the Day – 5 May – Saint Eulogius (Died c387) Bishop and Confessor of Edessa

Saint of the Day – 5 May – Saint Eulogius (Died c387) Bishop and Confessor of Edessa, Syria. By his zeal and love for the true Faith, St Eulogius firstly as a Priest defended the faithful from the Arians. For his troubles he and a fellow Priest working with him, were both exiled but finally after the death of the persecuting Emperor Valens, returned to Edessa where he became its worthy amd zealous shephdeerd.

The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Edessa in Syria, St Eulogius, Bishop and Confessor.”

During the persecution of the Semi-Arians led by Emperor Valens (364-378) against Catholics, Barses, the Bishop of Edessa, was sent into exile. To protect, lead and succour the faithful, 2 Priests of the See, Eulogius and Protogenes, assumed the role of their Bishop.

But soon they too, after resisting the Prefect Modestus, were exiled to Antinoe, the Capital City of the Thebaid. Upon the death of Valens, the persecution having ended, St Eulogius returned to Edessa and was appointed and Consecrated as the Bishop in succession to Barses, who had died in March 378 according to the Chronicle of Edessa.

This information has come to us through St Theodoret’s ‘Ecclesiastical History.’

St Eulogius was Consecrat by St Eusebius of Samosata. St Eulogius participated in the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 381. It is also known that Eulogius Consecrated his fellow Priest, Protogenes, as the Bishop of Harran.

According to the Chronicle of Edessa, St Eulogius died on Good Friday 387 and was succeeded by Cyrus.
In the Roman Martyrology,St Eulogius is commemorated today, 5 May. Among the various ancient Syriac Martyrologies, only the 9th
Century calendar of the Monastery of Qennesrin, mentions St Eulogius as the Bishop of Edessa on 21 June.