I Have Run the Race
From a letter written in exile by Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, bishop (283-371)
I have run the race; I have kept the faith
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
Dearly beloved, I know now that you are safe, as I was hoping, and I felt that I had paid you a visit, by being suddenly transported over the face of the earth like Habakkuk, when the angel brought him to Daniel. When I receive a letter from one of you and see in your writings your goodness and love, joy mingles with tears, and my desire to continue reading is checked by my weeping. Both emotions are inescapable, as they vie with each other in discharging their duty of affection, when such a letter satisfies my longing for you.
Days pass in this way as I imagine myself in conversation with you, and so I forget my past sufferings. Consolations surround me on all sides: your firm faith, your love, your good works. In the midst of so many great blessings I soon imagine myself in your company, in exile no longer.
Dearly beloved, I rejoice in your faith, in the salvation that comes from faith, in your good works, which are not confined to your own surroundings but spread far and wide. Like a farmer tending a sound tree, untouched by ax or fire because of its fruit, I want not only to serve you in the body, good people that you are, but also to give my life for your well-being.
Somehow or other I have managed with difficulty to complete this letter. I asked God constantly to keep the guards away hour by hour, and to allow the deacon to bring you some kind of greeting in writing, not simply news of my suffering. So I beg you to keep the faith with all vigilance, to preserve harmony, to be earnest in prayer, to remember me always, so that the Lord may grant freedom to his Church which is suffering throughout the world, and that I may be set free from the sufferings that weigh upon me, and so be able to rejoice with you.
I also ask and beseech you in God’s mercy, that each one of you should add his own name to the greeting in this letter. Of necessity I cannot write to each of you as was my custom. So in this letter I ask you all – brothers and holy sisters, sons and daughters, men and women, old and young – to be content with this greeting and to be good enough to give my respectful good wishes to those who are outside the community and are kind enough to be my friends.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Eusebius (283-371) was born at the beginning of the fourth century in Sardinia. He became a member to the Roman clergy and in 345 was elected first bishop of Vercelli. He spread religion by his preaching and established the monastic life in his diocese. He was a strong opponent of the growing heresy of Arianism taking hold in his time. The Emperor Constantius along with many of the elite in power at that time, many of whom were recent converts to the Catholic Church including some bishops, were supporters of the Arian heresy which held the belief that Christ was a man, created by God, but not one with God himself; i.e., not one of the three persons in the Blessed Trinity and denied Christ’s co-equal dignity and co-eternal existence with God the Father.
The matter was resolved in the first Council of Nicea in 325 which declared the doctrine that Christ was “the Word, Who, in the beginning, was with God and was God by Whom all things were made.” “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is of the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father, through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth, who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and made man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven and will come to judge the living and the dead.”
In 364, the new Emperor Constantius, who favored Arianism, opened a Church council to address the issue, but in reality, sought the confirmation of Arianism and the condemnation of Saint Athanatius, who openly condemned Arianism as a heresy.
Eusebius held fast, agreeing with Athanatius. He presented the council with the creed adopted by the Council of Nicea of 325, which stated clearly that Christ was “begotten of the Father, not made.” He insisted that all bishops in attendance sign their affirmation of this Church doctrine. Because of this he was driven into exile by Emperor Constantius and endured much suffering. After the death of Constantius, he returned to Italy and worked tirelessly against the Arian heresy, and strove for the restoration of the faith. He died at Vercelli in 371.