EUSTACHIUS, yu-ste'ki-us (EUSTATHIUS), SAINT: According to a late tradition, a Roman martyr who, with his family, was put to death in 118. Before his baptism he was called Placidus, and he is said to have been converted by a vision as he was hunting in the forest, of a cross between the antlers of the stag he was pursuing, while a voice cried to him: "Why persecutest thou me?" After being exposed in vain to the lions in the amphitheater, Eustachius and his family are said to have been burned to death in an oven shaped like a stag. In the Western Church the martyrdom of Eustachius had been commemorated on Sept. 20 since the early Middle Ages, while the Greek Church appoints Nov. 20 for this feast. A basilica of St. Eustachius existed in Rome in the eighth century and apparently even in the time of Gregory the Great, and relics of the saint were taken thence to various places, including St. Denis and Paris. Eustachius is the patron saint of Madrid, and he is also one of the fourteen "helpers in need" (q.v.), being the special protector of pious hunters.

O. Zöckler.

Bibliography: ASB, Sept., vi. 106-137; Analecta Bollandiana, iii. 66-112, Paris, 1884; Nicephorus Callistus, Hist. eccl., iii. 29; M. Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma, pp. 234-238, Rome, 1887; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte Roms, iii. 578-583, Stuttgart, 1895-96. Eng. transl., iii. 553-556, iv. 420, 458, London, 1895-98; DCB, ii. 380-381.

EUSTASIUS, yu-ste'shi-us. Second abbot of Luxeuil; d. 629. He was of noble family, nephew

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of Bishop Mietius of Langres, and as discipulus et minister stood in close connection with Columban himself after being received into the monastery at Luxeuil. After Columban had been driven from Luxeuil, Eustasius aided him in his missionary activity by Lake Constante (see Columban). It is possible that Columban appointed him his successor in the restored mother cloister. At any rate Eustasius was abbot there from 614 with the sanction of King Clothair II. and had supervision over the monasteries connected with Luxeuil. According to the representation of his biographer, who knew him personally, Eustasius was a learned, eloquent, and active man. The bishops Donatus of Besançon, Aichar of Tournai, Chagnoald of Leon, Ragnachar of Basel, the abbots Amatus of Remiremont, Waldebert of Luxeuil, Agilus of Resbais, and the abbess Burgundofara of Faremoutier were his pupils; St. Salaberga was won by him for the spiritual life. He changed nothing in the order of Columban and zealously followed the penitential regulations of the latter (see Columban). He retained the Irish form of the mass, the tonsure, and daily discipline, as may be seen from the charges made against him by Agrestius (Vita Columbani, ii. 9), but as the Irish celebration of Easter disappears from the charges, it is probable that he ultimately abandoned it. Eustasius also labored for the conversion of heretical and heathen natives; he succeeded in making the Wariskians, dwelling on both sides of the middle Doubs, who followed Bonosus, adherents of the Catholic Church. With Agilus he undertook a missionary journey to the Bavarians, but met with slight success. His anniversary is given by Jones as Apr. 29, but in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (ASB, Nov., ii. 38) as Apr. 2.

Otto Seebass.

Bibliography: The one source is the life by the Abbot Jonas, in book ii., chaps. 7-10, of the Vita Columbani, printed in MGH, Script. rer. Merov., iv (1902), 119-130, and in ABM, ii. 108-111, cf. pp. 302 sqq., 405 sqq. Consult: S. Riezler, Geschichte Bayerns, i. 77, Gotha, 1878; Rettberg, KD, ii. 188; Hauck, KD, i. 286 et passim; DCB, ii. 381.