Eustasius of Naples

Saint Eustasius was bishop of Naples in the second or third century. Very little is known of him. He is commemorated on 29 March.

Two medieval texts, the Acts of the Bishops of Naples (around the ninth century) and the Catalogue of the Bishops of Naples (tenth century), name him as the seventh bishop of the city, successor of Saint Agrippinus and predecessor of Ephebus. Eustasius lived in the first half of the third century, long before the year 343, the first well documented date in the line of the bishops of Naples.

According to the Catalogue, he was bishop for seventeen years, in the time of Popes Anterus (235 to 236) and Fabian (236 to 250). The Acts of the Bishops say that his relics were moved around the ninth century to the main altar of a church identified with Santa Maria in Cosmedin (or Portanova).

Pope Leo XIII confirmed his veneration as a saint in 1884. He lived before the separation of the Churches, and so he is venerated as a saint of the undivided Church.