Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, Bishop

Eusebius was born in Sardinia about 283 and served as a lector in Rome. In 345 he became the first bishop of Vercelli in northern Italy, where he lived together with his clergy under a common rule, an early joining of the clerical and monastic life in the West. At the Council of Milan in 355 he refused to sign the condemnation of Athanasius of Alexandria demanded by Emperor Constantius II, who favoured the Arian party, and was exiled to Scythopolis in Palestine, then to Cappadocia and Egypt. Freed under Julian in 362, he joined Athanasius at a council in Alexandria and then returned to Vercelli, where he died in 371. An ancient Latin Gospel book kept at Vercelli is traditionally linked with him.