Biography
Eusebius of Bologna
About Eusebius of Bologna
Eusebius was bishop of Bologna when he participated in the Council of Aquileia in 381.
The surviving proceedings show him questioning Palladius alongside Ambrose of Milan about the divinity of Christ. Eusebius insisted that the Son was eternal and equal to the Father in his divine nature. He pressed Palladius to reject the teaching attributed to Arius and to state his own belief plainly.
The hearing was contentious. Palladius disputed the authority of the gathering, called for a fuller council, and asked for independent arbitrators and reporters from both sides. Eusebius refused to allow counterquestions until Arius’s teaching had been condemned. At the conclusion he supported Palladius’s condemnation and exclusion from the assembly of bishops.
Other references to an Eusebius in Ambrose’s correspondence require care. The editors of the 1881 English translation considered the recipient of two familiar letters probably a lay friend rather than this bishop. The family described in those letters should therefore not be confidently assigned to Eusebius of Bologna.
The archdiocese honors Eusebius among its saints. Its roster records his individual commemoration on September 26, while explaining that he is now remembered with Zama and the other holy bishops of Bologna on September 28.
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