Sant'Eusebio

Sant'Eusebio is a titular church in Rome, devoted to Saint Eusebius of Rome, a 4th-century martyr, and built in the Esquilino rione. One of the oldest churches in Rome, it is a titular church and the station church for the Friday after the fourth Sunday in Lent.

History

The church is said to have been built on the site of the house of the priest and confessor, Eusebius of Rome, who died c. 357. It is recorded as the Titulus Eusebii in the acts of the 499 synod. It is again mentioned in the acts of a council held in Rome under Pope Symmachus in 498. The church was rebuilt by Pope Zacharias, and was consecrated "in honorem beatorum Eusebii et Vincentii" by Pope Gregory IX, after the restoration of 1238.¹ A plaque commemorating the rebuilding is located on the porch of the church.

The Romanesque style, dating back to this restoration, survived to the restorations of the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The church once belonged to the Celestines. The annexed monastery housed one of the first printing workshop in the city. In 1627, the monastery was raised from a priory to an abbey, but abolished in 1810.² The order subsequently became extinct.³ Pope Leo XII gave Sant'Eusebio to the Jesuits. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1873, the monastery was seized by the state, and Sant'Eusebio eventually became a parish church staffed by diocesan clergy.

The small piazza outside the church hosts an annual blessing for the animals on the 17 January – the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot. The tradition dates back to 1437 and was transferred to Sant'Eusebio in the early 20th century from the nearby Church of Sant’Antonio Abate.