Eusebius the Recluse

Venerable Eusebius the Recluse (Eusebius of Syria) was a Christian ascetic, a Syrian hermit of the fourth and fifth centuries. Our sources give no certain day of his commemoration. Information about his life is given by Theodoret of Cyrrhus, in the fourth chapter of his book History of the Lovers of God.

His guide in monastic life was his own uncle, Marian. The uncle placed his nephews, Marian and his brother, in a narrow hut and taught them the evangelical way of life. The brother of Eusebius fell ill and died, and Eusebius continued his monastic life. His cell was twenty-⁠five stadia from a village called Teleda, east of Antioch and west of Beroea, at the foot of a mountain called Koryphe. Eusebius lived in fasting and prayer in the cell throughout his uncle's life, speaking to no one and not seeing the light, remaining always in voluntary confinement.

After the uncle's death the monk Ammianus, who lived on the top of Mount Koryphe, on a wooded hill, persuaded Eusebius to leave the cell and, for the spiritual benefit of people, to head the monastery on that hill. Eusebius, as a punishment for his inattention, began to wear chains: he put an iron belt on his loins and a very heavy chain on his neck, and joined the belt to it with a chain also, so that, bent thus, he was forced always to look at the ground. His fame spread, and through it monks trained by Julian came to him. Eusebius governed the monastery until the end of his life. Before his death James the Persian and Agrippa came to him. Eusebius proposed to James that he lead the monastery, but he refused. Then he proposed it to Agrippa, who after the death of the ascetic became abbot of the monastery.