| Saint Eustace and companions | |
|---|---|
The Vision of Saint Eustace, by Pisanello. |
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| Martyrs | |
| Died | 118 AD |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church; Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | September 20 (Western Christianity); November 2 (Eastern Christianity) |
| Attributes | bull; crucifix; horn; stag; oven |
| Patronage | against fire; difficult situations; fire prevention; firefighters; hunters; hunting; huntsmen; Madrid; torture victims; trappers |
Saint Eustace, also known as Eustachius or Eustathius, was a legendary Christian martyr who lived in the 2nd century AD. A martyr of that name is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, which, however, judges that the legend recounted about him is "completely fabulous."[1] For that reason Eustace was removed from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints to be commemorated liturgically worldwide on the former feast of "Saint Eustace and Companions."[2] The saint continues to be honored on the calendar of the Melkite Catholics on December 13, as the "Commemoration of the Holy Martyrs Eustrates, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius, Orestes and the Virgin Lucia." He is also commemorated in the Orthodox Church.
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Prior to his conversion to Christianity, he was a Roman general named Placidus, who served the emperor Trajan. While hunting a stag in Tivoli near Rome, Placidus saw a vision of Jesus between the stag's antlers. He was immediately converted, had himself and his family baptized, and changed his name to Eustace (Greek: Ευστάθιος Eustathios, "good stability" or "fruitful"). A series of calamities followed to test his faith: his wealth was stolen; his servants died of a plague; when the family took a sea voyage, the ship's captain kidnapped Eustace's wife Theopista; and as Eustace crossed a river with his two sons Agapius and Theopistus, the children were taken away by a wolf and a lion. Like Job, Eustace lamented but did not lose his faith. He was then quickly restored to his former prestige and reunited with his family; but when he demonstrated his new faith by refusing to make a pagan sacrifice, the emperor, Hadrian, condemned Eustace, his wife, and his sons to be roasted to death inside a bronze statue of a bull or an ox, in the year AD 118. The d'Afflitto dynasty, one of the oldest princely families in Italy, claims to be the direct descendant of Saint Eustace.
The opening part of this legend, up to the martyrdom, is a variant of a popular tale in chivalric romance: the Man Tried By Fate.[3] Except for an exemplum in Gesta Romanorum, all such tales are highly developed romances, such as Sir Isumbras.[4]
On a capital representing an episode from the life of Eustace(17), a horizontal line,articulated by the galloping horse and the leash that tethers a dog,runs across the surface of the carving. At the terminus of this line awaits that stag that will convert the Roman general to the Christian faith. The disposition of hunter and prey on possibility of viewing the various figures simultaneously. Rather, it is necessary to move around the corners of capital in order to link the various elements of the story and thereby become physically absorbed within the temporal structure of this narrative of conversion, moving from the various mundane trappings of the hunt to e arrested by the heavenly vision of the cross lodged within the antlers of the stag. The animal's open jaws suggest that it speaks,perhaps articulating the inverted hunting metaphor found in Eustace's Latin vita:' I will hunt you [ Eustace] and capture you with my mercy.' Yet the exact narrative moment represented on the carving is ambiguous,for it is not clear whether the hunter is still caught up in the pursuit of his earthly prey or if Eustace has already recognized his heavenly Lord.
The Vezelay capital stands as an extremely early instance of Eustace iconography,which may have played a role in the transmission of the iconography, often illustrate Psalm 96,11-12 with the saint's conversion:' Light is risen to the just,and joy to the right of heart. Rejoice ,ye just, in the Lord; and give praise to the remembrance of his holiness.' Accompanying miniatures typically represent the saint kneeling before the stag, with an image of Christ in its antlers. This formula seems to have informed the design of a number of Western images, including a portal capital at Autun. Early representations of the saint on horseback may be found in the Byzantine east,including a tenth-century fresco in a rock-cut chapel at Gullu Dere, but none show him with an oliphant as at Vezelay. The closest parallels are two fourteenth-century French ivories, a comb and a coddret, but the planar format of these scenes precludes the temporal unfolding of events that is possible on a capital basket. A lost Byzantine prototype may have inspired this iconography, but this does not diminish the vivid evocation of the hunt at Vazelay. The dearth of evidence for Eustace's cult in Europe before the twelfth century makes the rationale for an inclusion of his image at the monastery obscure. It has been tentatively suggested that the abbey possessed relics of the saint, but there is no evidence for this. The earliest records of Eustace's relics in France appear in decidedly royal context. Abbot SUger mentions that the abbey church of St. Denis, the resting place of many French kings, possessed Eustace's relics, and shortly after the turn of the thirteenth century king Philip Augusts rededicated a church of Ste.-Agnes in Paris to the soldier saint. Because he was believed to have been murdered by the Emperor Diocletian for his faith, Eustace appears in martyrologies from throughout Europe ,though these texts yield little insight into how his conversion was understood. Sometime around 1100, the saint's cult began to gain in currency in Europe, perhaps as a result of the first crusade. Byzantine soldiers may have passed their reverence for military saints to their Western counterparts. The proliferation of text in honor of Eustace attests to the currency of his cult. Four prose and eleven verse versions of the saint's life were composed in the French vernacular, of which the earliest examples date to the twelfth century. The influence of the legend has even been detected in secular poetry, including the work of Chertien de Troyes.
The military prowess of Eustace recurs as a theme in vernacular works. The fact that the saint wears mail on the Vezelay capital ,a detail that likely would have been picked out with paint, signals this trait. Eleventh-and twelfth-century writers, including those of the Clunical order, often applied military metaphors to the religious life. Monks were dubbed milities Christi, engaged in a battle against the armies of Satan. The celebrated demons represented in capitals throughout Vezelay's nave vividly evoke the horde of the enemy, and the many scenes of combat evoke contemporary metaphors of spiritual conflict. Monks undoubtedly would have need responsive to the application of military metaphors to the religious vocation given the turbulent and often violent character of Burgundian society in the early twelfth century. A power vacuum existed in the region at this time, as petty nobles vied for political control. Monasteries were by no means isolated from this chaotic situation, as recent historians who have analyzed violence and its sublimation within cenobitic culture in Burgundy have shown. Lester K. Little ,for example, has drawn our attention to recitations of liturgical curses in Burgundian monasteries. During this rite, monks called upon God to inflict on their enemies a multitude of misfortunes, from disease to poverty to death. Such combative attitudes may be explained in part by the fact that monks generally hailed from the ranks of the noble class, the bellatores. It was extremely common for wealthy families, practiced in the arts of war, to offer a son to a monastery. Abbot Hugh of Cluny ,for example, seems to have received military training in his youth as part of his privileged upbringing.
The story was popularized in Jacobus de Voragine's "Golden Legend" (c. 1260). Eustace became known as a patron saint of hunters and firefighters, and also of anyone facing adversity; he was traditionally included among the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
As with many early saints, there is little evidence for Eustace's existence, even as a martyr.[5] Elements of his story have been attributed to other saints (notably the Belgian Saint Hubert).
Saint Eustace's feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is September 20, as is indicated in the Roman Martyrology.[6] In addition, a celebration of Saint Eustace and his companions was included in the Roman Calendar from the twelfth century until 1969, when it was removed because of the completely fabulous character of their Passio,[7] resulting in a lack of sure knowledge about them. Some traditionalist Catholics continue to observe the pre-1970 Roman Calendar.
He is one of the patron saints of Madrid, Spain. Scenes from the story, especially Eustace kneeling before the stag, became a popular subject of medieval religious art. Early artistic depictions of the legend include a wall painting at Canterbury Cathedral and stained glass windows at the Cathedral of Chartres. There is a Church of Saint Eustace in Paris. The island of Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean Netherlands is named after him.
The novels "The Herb of Grace" (US title: Pilgrim's Inn) (1948) by British author Elizabeth Goudge, and Riddley Walker (1980) by American author Russell Hoban, incorporate the legend into their plot.
The saint's cross-and-stag symbol is featured on bottles of Jägermeister. This is related to his status as patron of hunters; jägermeisters were senior foresters and gamekeepers in the German civil service at the time of the drink's introduction in 1935.
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