Euodius
Acta Sanctorum, May 6
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-06/euodius.html
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ON SAINT EUODIUS

BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, MARTYR.

ABOUT THE YEAR LXVI

[Commentary]

Euodius, Bishop of Antioch, Martyr (S.)

G. H.

[1] The memory of S. Euodius is celebrated on various days,
but he is venerated chiefly by the Latins on this VI
day of May, on which these things are reported by Usuard:
At Antioch of S. Euodius, who,
as B. Ignatius writes, [Cult on May 6 among the Latins] was the first there
ordained Bishop by the Apostles. He ended his life by glorious
martyrdom in the same city. Ado puts the earlier
part on this VI of May; but in the prefatory little book,
on the festivities of the Apostles and their disciples, he has these:
On the day before the Nones of May, the Birthday of S. Euodius, who was ordained
Bishop of Antioch by the Apostles, of whom
B. Ignatius writes thus to the Antiochene church:
[You have been made disciples of Paul and Peter, do not lose
the deposit which they have entrusted to you. Remember
worthily the most blessed Euodius your Pastor, who first
was ordained Bishop for you by the Apostles. Let us
not confound the Father, but be made worthy sons and not
adulterous.] This Martyr was buried in the city of Antioch,
over which he had presided. So Ado. Similar things have, with
many manuscript Martyrologies, Notker, Bellinus, Greven,
Maurolycus, Molanus, Galesinius, Canisius, and others with
today's Roman Martyrology, in which these things are set forth:
At Antioch of S. Euodius, who, as B. Ignatius writes to the Antiochenes,
the first there ordained
Bishop by S. Peter the Apostle, ended his life by glorious martyrdom. Of him
also Peter de Natalibus treats in book 4 chapter 137, where by typographical error
it is read "buried on the day before the Kalends of May," when from the adjoining
Saints it is clear it should be read, "the day before the Nones of May."

[2] The Greeks join SS. Onesiphorus and Euodius,
whom they call Εὔοδος, and on the XXIX day of April have thus: These
were of the seventy disciples: of whom also Paul, writing to others,
makes mention. [among the Greeks April 29,] And Onesiphorus indeed was Bishop
of Colophon. But Euodus was placed by Peter
on the See of Antioch. Both at length, having overcome not
a few perils and trials, and having converted many
to the Christian faith, themselves also reached
the desired Lord. [and September 7:] These things are read in the Synaxarium of Chiflet
on the preceding day. Again the same among the same
Greeks on the VII day of September are celebrated with this encomium: On the same
day the memory of the holy Apostles Euodius and
Onesiphorus. This holy Apostle Euodus, made
Bishop in great Antioch after Peter, is mentioned
in the epistles of B. Paul; who magnificently among the seventy
disciples excelled, and was an outstanding herald
of the word… He in the choir of heralds of the word, with the Apostle
Onesiphorus, dwells in the heavenly tabernacles.
S. Onesiphorus is venerated by the Latins and in the Roman
Martyrology on day VI of September. Of him S. Paul makes mention 2
to Timothy chapter 1 and 4, but not of S. Euodius, so that it would seem
to have been written wrongly, "of Paul" for "of Ignatius": or certainly the author of the Menaeum could be
said to have looked at the Epistle of S. Paul to the Philippians, where
in chapter 4 he had read "Euodus," when there is, "I beseech Euodia and
Syntyche to think the same in the Lord." Of the epistles
of S. Ignatius, and that which he wrote at Philippi to the Antiochenes,
we treated on the Kalends of February in his Life §. 6. In the Synopsis
of the seventy disciples, which is handed down under the name of Dorotheus and
Hippolytus, also S. Euodius Bishop of
Antioch is referred.

[3] S. Euodius was constituted Bishop, when S.
Peter, [Time of the See.] in the twelfth year from the Passion of Christ, having left Antioch,
placed his See at Rome; that this happened
in the fortieth year of the common era we said in the preliminary
Diatribe to the first volume of April before the ancient Catalogues
of Roman Pontiffs. But in what precise year
Euodius was crowned with glorious martyrdom is not
sufficiently established. Peter de Natalibus asserts that this happened under
the persecution of Nero, under which we have shown SS. Peter and Paul
suffered, in the cited Diatribe, in the XII year of Nero
aforesaid, that is the LXV year of the common era, and S. Euodius does not seem
to have lived long after.
