Eustathius

Eustathius as a native of Side in Pamphylia would become a bishop of Beroea in 320. He is said to have become the patriarch of Antioch shortly before the Council of Nicaea in 325.

patriarch

The term patriarch is a man who is the oldest or most venerable of a group. It is also defined as "a bishop of one of the most ancient Christian sees (Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and formerly Rome)." This is an office that came to us from the Church of Constantine. We can trace the term patriarch's origins back to its ancient Greek root pater meaning "father." There is the Paterfamilias which is the head of the family and also called and elder. Those are terms of the Family, not of the Church. It was an office of the Roman government similar of the office held by Ambrose prior to the citizens of Milan electing him to be their Bishop to handle the daily ministration of Constantine's new church.

There is also the Pater Patriae which is a term of the governments of the world. Parens Patriae is Latin phrase for "parent of the nation" (lit., "parent of the fatherland"). In law, it refers to the power of public policy residing in the state to intervene against the parent or legal guardian of the children of the State. This is a power of choice that supersedes the Paterfamilias the natural father of the family.

Some people think that is the job of governments to manage the morality and practices of the family and at one time the State may have done a good job doing just that and people are right that someone should be attending to the weightier matters for children. But there are means and methods of doing just that before the creation of the Welfare State.

The record of Eustathius as a bishop of Beroea it is not available so we cannot say that he was a good or bad bishop of Beroea or that he was even a follower of Christ. A [[bishop is merely an overseer of some form of social welfare system. All city states had such overseers including the cities of blood.

In that assembly he distinguished himself zealously against the Arians, though the Allocutio ad Imperatorem with which he has been credited is probably not by him.[1]

His anti-Arian polemic against Eusebius of Nicomedia made him unpopular among his fellow bishops in the East, and a synod convened at Antioch in 330 deposed him for adultery,[2] which was confirmed by the emperor.[1]

In the dispute with Eustathius of Antioch, who opposed the growing influence of Origen and his practice of an allegorical exegesis of scripture, seeing in his theology the roots of Arianism, Eusebius, an admirer of Origen, was reproached by Eustathius for deviating from the Nicene faith, who was charged in turn with Sabellianism. Eustathius was accused, condemned, and deposed at a synod in Antioch. The people of Antioch rebelled against this action,[3] while the anti-Eustathians proposed Eusebius as the new bishop, but he declined. He was banished to Trajanopolis in Thrace, where he died, probably about 337, though possibly not until 370.[4]

The people of Antioch, who loved and revered their patriarch, became indignant at the injustice done to him and were ready to take up arms in his defence. But Eustathius kept them in check, exhorted them to remain true to the orthodox faith and humbly left for his place of exile, accompanied by a large body of his clergy. His adherents in Antioch formed a separate community by the name of "Eustathians" and refused to acknowledge the bishops set over them by the Arians. When, after the death of Eustathius, Meletius became Bishop of Antioch in 360 by the united vote of the Arians and the orthodox, the Eustathians would not recognize him, even after his election was approved by the Synod of Alexandria in 362. Their intransigent attitude gave rise to two factions among the orthodox, the so-called Meletian schism, which lasted till the second decade of the fifth century.[5]

The only complete work by Eustathius is the De Engastrimytho contra Origenem.[6]

The Commentary on the Hexameron attributed to him in the manuscripts is too late to be authentic.