Those things are to be consulted which we said in the admonition to the sermon 'On the birthday of the Maccabees and of Saint Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli,' above, col. 611, and we there noted the variant readings; which, as it stands in Galland, we publish. Although, brethren, inexperience and shame call me back from rendering to your charity the sermon that is due, and though the trembling rudiments ever deter me, yet the love of the venerable man, the present bishop, gives confidence to one who trembles;
the love of your affection also, proven from my very cradle, excludes all the force of timid fear, and above all the grace of blessed memory of our lord and father, the confessor, impels me, whom, for the instruction of heavenly virtues, the office of pious devotion delights more than the pomp of words. To whom, although small and slight things are said by me, I do not doubt that what will be said will be pleasing, coming from him whom he himself nourished, born and begotten in his Church, with the vital light of the spiritual breast. For pious parents, when nature first provokes their little ones to speak, are delighted by the stammering speech of infancy's own untrained tongue with a certain sweeter joy. And then their manner of speaking is sweeter,
when with still trembling lips, through broken words, they cannot express what they desire. Whence, brethren, although I be slender in sense and poor in tongue, and unable to equal the heavenly merits of the most reverend man; yet that consideration especially consoles me, that the greatness of love excuses the impossibility of my astounded talent, nor will any offense gnaw at me for presumption; devotion commends inexperience to you, and where love conquers modesty. Who therefore, dearly beloved, would not burst forth with all ardor into the praise of blessed Eusebius, whose glory, even if our tongue keep silent, the monuments of his innumerable virtues throughout almost the whole world bear witness to?
For this is he concerning whom so great was the prerogative of divine judgment, that—as the account of the faithful fathers has brought also into our knowledge—when he had hastened hither an unknown stranger, by the suddenly concordant votes of the peoples he became both a priest of Christ and the father of our city. Nor could this stand in the way of his election, that he seemed unknown; since He from whom human judgments were hidden, could not be hidden from the foreknowledge of Almighty God. Finally, do you wish to know by how special a grace of heavenly calling he was consecrated? Behold, integrity of life and perfection of faith gave him as both a preeminent priest and a most glorious confessor. He taught the varied characters of those dwelling together within the enclosure of a single lodging to come together into one concord;
and so great with him was the measure and discipline of living, that as the household increased with daily progress, that dwelling seemed no longer a congregation of diverse clerics, but a college of fellow-priests, so much so that, as from a seed-bed of the best growth, he might bestow upon very many cities, when the peoples sought them, the choicest pastors of his own instruction. For there was in all, with so great a prince leading the way, an unwearied diligence of spiritual offices, the soundness of frugality and sobriety, the sweetness of charity, the grace of meekness, the guardianship of chastity. All which things, brethren, although our generation is not strong enough to fulfill, yet posterity has in its excellent father something to marvel at. Why should I say that?
By his profession of the saving faith he earned to endure exile and manifold penalties in a foreign land; strengthened by the discipline of fastings and vigils, never bent aside from the way of truth, with the most unshaken vigor of heart he triumphed over the authors of faithlessness. And hence it comes, beloved, that his death is more glorious than any life; hence it is that his priesthood, enduring through the devotion of the faithful, does not feel the common decease of mortals. And what shall I say most fittingly concerning the most blessed seven Maccabee brothers? who, when they had trampled underfoot the terror of the raging Antiochus and did not forsake the legal precepts of the Old Testament, attained to fellowship with the eternal King and to the blessed glory of the Gospel.
And just as they had a birth as brothers from one womb, so there was made for them a fraternal victory of one faith. In the manner of that lampstand which of old shone with sevenfold light in the temple, they lit up the torch of the world with the seven lamps of their sufferings. And just as then the care of the priest supplied oil to the lampstand for the continuance of its light, so to these the almighty Lord poured forth from the treasury of His glory the ointment of the Holy Spirit to illuminate their faith. Amid these things their venerable mother, most joyful in the death of such sons, grieved with one and only sorrow: lest any of her sweet pledges should be unwilling or afraid to be slain for the sanctifying of the divine law.
And how great a marvel is this, that for the increase of the present joy the assumption of our holy Eusebius and the victories of the Maccabees came together in one day! How alike was their combat! How undistinguishable is their triumph! For the anxious mother offered these to the raging Antiochus; and this one the solicitous mother, the Church, brought forth into the spiritual contest of all believers while the devil raged. The Maccabees patiently and bravely endured manifold kinds of tortures, lest they defile hearts devoted to God with swine's flesh, which was then held unlawful. But the most blessed father Eusebius sustained countless and most grievous torments from the heretics, lest he should stain the conscience of his most pure breast with the pollution of the Arian faithlessness.
The first of those seven brothers, as you have heard, because he stood unmoved, was maimed in hands and feet. But Eusebius, persevering in the truth of the faith, consented to the heretical will neither by a journey of the feet nor by a signature of the hands. The second of them, lest he lose the head of true salvation, was content to be stripped of the skin of his head. But the venerable Eusebius, while he exposed his head to persecutors for the members of the Church, did not lose the covering of the heavenly head. The third of the Maccabees, when demanded, most steadfastly put forth his tongue to be cut off by the hands of the impious, so that the tongue which had spoken on behalf of the whole body might go before the whole body to God.
But Eusebius loved his tongue against the tyrant of faith and for the overthrow of the diabolical error, not fearing to lose that which he knew could not, even if lost, perish for him. But the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth, as it has been read, without any description of penalties, rebuked King Antiochus with sharper words. Eusebius nonetheless, amid countless torments and diverse punishments, spoke words so brave, so magnificent, that by the rebuke of his words the impious breasts of the faithless were tormented. The seventh too, persisting in the defense of the ancestral law, despised with wondrous magnanimity the deceit-filled Antiochus who promised honors and riches.
But neither the ambition of priestly honor nor the poverty of exile turned Eusebius aside from the defense of the true faith; rather, through holy indigence he acquired unspeakable riches, and preserved his priesthood by the very loss of that priesthood. The most glorious mother too, by her sons not yielding, overcame the wrathful Antiochus; and the Church of Christ, when Eusebius conquered faithlessness, trampled underfoot the very author of impiety, the devil, once truth had been restored to the world. This, therefore, is the fellowship of combat and glory which the most blessed confessor has with the Maccabee brothers.
This day's festival must be multiplied and honored by us every year, the day on which both the champions of the Old Testament passed over into eternal blessedness, and the defender of the new Gospel was taken up.