Eusanius

Saint Eusanius, martyr, was according to local tradition a Christian of Sipontum in southern Italy, killed for the faith at Forcona in the Abruzzo region around the year 300. He is commemorated on 9 July. His veneration is local, in the region where he lived and died.

According to a martyrdom text (Passio), Eusanius was a native of Sipontum. On a pilgrimage to Rome he passed through the lands of Chieti, Valva, Antrodoco and Rieti. In the last two cities he worked miracles, and at Rieti a church was consecrated in his honor, Sant'Eusanio. On the way home he stopped where the town of Sant'Eusanio Forconese now stands, in the province of L'Aquila. There he carried out a second apostolic ministry, which aroused the envy of the local lord. Eusanius was thrown into prison and tortured to death on 9 July.

A more detailed story is found in the history of the city of Chieti by Girolamo Nicolino, printed in 1657. It says that Eusanius worked a miracle in Sipontum, his birthplace, raising a young man named Diocletian. His fellow citizens called him to be their bishop, but he refused and left the city with the same Diocletian and with two companions, Theodore and his sister Gratula, to go to Rome. The road passed through the land of Chieti. At Montecchio, today Sant'Eusanio del Sangro, he worked another miracle, healing Teoconia, a woman blind since the age of twelve. The journey went on through Valva and the Five Villages, today Sant'Eusanio Forconese, where he worked many other miracles.

It must be said that the sources are late and legendary in character, and the sources at hand show no canonization of him by the Orthodox Church.