Eustathius of Antioch

Saint Eustathius of Antioch, whom we commemorate tomorrow, is great on many levels. I start with his integrity in thought and deed. He was elected a bishop to the Church of Aleppo, and he proved to be a shepherd in the image of the great Shepherd of our souls. Then, after the widowing of the Church of Antioch in the year 324, the gaze of the bishops and the faithful turned to him. He resisted them on the grounds that the transfer of bishops from one see to another is illegal. They insisted. He deferred to them. Then, at the First Ecumenical Council (325), he sought, along with others, to issue the 15th law, which forbids the transfer of bishops from one diocese to another. The bishops who were inclined to the heresy of Arius conspired against him, and two years following the convening of the Council, they managed to have him deposed and exiled. He died far away, yet great in his faithfulness to the Truth, Which was his bequest to the Antiochians. Saint Anastasius of Sinai said about him that he is the holy martyr through whose mouth God spoke.