Saint Eugenius

Bishop of Carthage († 505)

Feast – July 13

Carthage, which was located on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia, was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. After being conquered, it became a major city of the Roman Empire in the province of Africa and the final destination of St. Epenetus, one of the Seventy-two disciples and the first Bishop of Carthage.

The bishops of Carthage exercised an informal primacy in the Early African Church, in the region which used to be the Carthaginian empire, and to some extent over the Church in Numidia (modern-day Algeria expanding across Tunisia, Libya, and some parts of Morocco) and Mauretania (from central Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains). The provincial primacy associated with the senior bishop in the province was of little importance in comparison to the authority of the bishop of Carthage, who could be appealed to directly by the clergy of any province. Not much is known about the bishops of Carthage and difficulties they had faced. The first certain historically documented bishop is Agrippinus around the 230s. During his episcopacy the question arose in the African Church as to what should be done with regard to converts from schism or heresy. If they had previously been Catholics, ecclesiastical discipline held them subject to penance, but if it were a question of receiving those who had been baptized outside the Church, was their baptism to be regarded as valid? Agrippinus convoked the bishops of Numidia and Africa for the First Council of Africa c. 215-217 which resolved the question negatively. He consequently decided that such persons should be baptized, not conditionally but absolutely.

In 250 the Roman Emperor Decius in his pursue for absolute power had issued an edict ordering everyone in the Empire to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the emperor. The sacrifices had to be performed in the presence of a Roman magistrate and be confirmed by a signed and witnessed certificate from the magistrate. As bishop, St. Cyprian faced opposition within his own diocese over the question of the proper treatment of the lapsi who had fallen away from the Christian faith under persecution, a division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist controversy. He held a council sometime after Easter 251 AD, in which lapsi were classified into five categories; Sacrificati (Those who had actually offered a sacrifice to the idols), Thurificati (Those who had burnt incense on the altar before the statues of the gods), Libellatici (Those who had drawn up attestation, or had, by bribing the authorities, caused such certificates to be drawn up for them, representing them as having offered sacrifice, without, however, having actually done so), Acta facientes (Those that made false statements or other acts to save their lives) and Traditores (Those who gave up sacred scriptures, artifacts and/or revealed names of fellow Christians), with assign penance appropriate to each.

The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those clergy who had surrendered the sacred scriptures when they were forbidden under the emperor Diocletian. The most articulate critic of the Donatist heresy was St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, who pointed that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Christ. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in the Council of Carthage 411, Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.

In 257 Emperor Valerian started his persecution of Christians. First, he commanded the clergy to perform sacrifices to the Roman gods or face banishment. This was followed by the execution of Christian leaders, then confiscation of property and lastly reducing to slavery members of imperial households who would not worship the Roman gods and to send them to work on the imperial estates. Persecution, sacrifice of Christians and internal struggle inside the episcopal see of Carthage brought “surprising” effects, by the end of the 4th century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and local tribes had converted in masse.

In August 431, the Vandals (Germanic immigrants who settled in the Iberian Peninsula) under their leader Genseric crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Africa and captured Hippo Regius, which they made the capital of their kingdom. In October 439 they made a surprise attack against Carthage and after capturing the city made it the new capital. The Vandals, who were Arians, had the practice of persecuting the Catholics, especially bishops. They plundered and destroyed Carthage’s churches, monasteries and burned two bishops alive. They banished to the desert to die Bishop St. Quodvultdeus, along with other Prelates and clergy as well as 5,000 lay people.

King Genseric protected his Catholic subjects since his relations with Rome or Constantinople required that, but left the see of Carthage empty for 14 years. In 454, at the request of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III, St. Deogratias was appointed bishop of Carthage. He remained on the seat until his death three years later. After St. Deogratias’ reign ended, the Vandals would not allow Carthage to have a Catholic bishop for another twenty-three years. King Genseric died on the 25th of January 477, at the age of around 88 years. According to the law of succession his oldest son Huneric became the new king.

In 481 at the request of the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno and Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III, wife of western Roman Empire Olybrius and sister of Huneric’s wife Eudocia, allowed the vacant seat to be filled, and St. Eugenius, famous for his learning, zeal, piety and prudence, was unanimously elected by the citizens of Carthage and consecrated Bishop.

St. Eugenius as a bishop refused himself the slightest convenience, in order to be able to give all he had to the poor and distressed. His austere lifestyle, charity, courage and clarity of his teaching won him the admiration and conversion of many Arians. King Huneric, seeing the growing popularity of the Catholic bishop while his own influence and power decline among his people, sent St. Eugenius an order to never sit on the episcopal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel any Vandals, even if Catholic.

The Saint courageously replied that the laws of God commanded him not to shut the door of His church to any who desired to serve Him there. His popularity grew further after Felix, a blind man of Carthage, had a dream that Bishop Eugenius would pray for him, and he would be healed. Twice the man ignored the dream, but he had it again. On the third time he roused himself and sought out the bishop. The legend continues that Felix went to the bishop and told his story. The bishop protested his ability to heal but eventually acquiesced with the words “I have already told you I am a sinful man; but may he who has deigned to visit you act in accordance with your faith and open your eyes.” While he was praying Felix’s sight was restored. When news of the miracle reached the Vandal king, Huneric unsuccessfully tried to kill Felix, then after St. Eugenius had admitted a number of Vandals into the Catholic Church, and successfully engaged in argument against Arian theologians, enraged the Vandal king who persecuted Catholics in various ways. On February 24, 484 he forcibly removed the Catholic bishops from their offices and exiled a great number of bishops, priests, deacons, and eminent Catholic laymen to Corsica and to the African deserts, which are filled with scorpions and venomous serpents. Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that they died on the rack, many were put to death. The people followed their bishops and priests to execution with lighted tapers in their hands. Mothers carried their little infants in their arms and laid them at the feet of the confessors, crying out with tears, “On your way to receiving your crowns, to whom do you leave us? Who will baptize our children? Who will impart to us the benefit of penance, and free us from the bonds of sin by the grace of reconciliation and pardon? Who will bury us with solemn prayers at our death? By whom will the divine Sacrifice be offered?”

Through divine intervention, St. Eugenius was liberated on the very scaffold, but exiled to an uninhabited desert in the province of Tripoli and committed to the guard of Anthony, an Arian bishop who treated him with the utmost barbarity, shutting him up in a narrow cell and allowing no one to visit him. Before entering that prison, however, he had found a way to write to his diocesans a splendid letter, in which he said: “If I return to Carthage, I will see you in this life; if I do not return, I will see you in the other. Pray for us and fast, because fasting and almsgiving have always obtained the mercy of God; but remember above all, that it is written we must not fear those who can kill only the body.”

When in 484, Huneric was succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, a new king recalled Saint Eugenius to Carthage, opened the Catholic churches, and allowed all the exiled clergy to return. After reigning for twelve years, in 496 Gontamund died, and his brother Thrasamund succeeded to the throne. He arrested St. Eugenius and condemned him to death, but converted the sentence into exile in France.

St. Eugenius, about whom we know very little, was the bishop over many martyrs and, as such, became the symbol of all of them. He died July 13, 505, in a monastery which he had built and governed at Albi, near Toulouse.

References and Excerpts:

[1]          “Capture of Carthage (439),” Wikipedia. Apr. 09, 2022. Accessed: Jun. 25, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_of_Carthage_(439)&oldid=1081811305

[2]          “CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Agrippinus.” https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01232a.htm (accessed Jun. 25, 2022).

[3]          “Decian persecution,” Wikipedia. Nov. 30, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 25, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Decian_persecution&oldid=1057884115

[4]          “Epenetus of Carthage,” Wikipedia. Apr. 27, 2022. Accessed: Jun. 25, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epenetus_of_Carthage&oldid=1084908255

[5]          “Saint Eugenius, Bishop of Carthage.” https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_eugenius.html (accessed Jun. 25, 2022).

[6]          “July 13—ST. EUGENIUS, Bishop,” Garden Of Mary. https://gardenofmary.com/july-13-st-eugenius-bishop/ (accessed Jun. 25, 2022).

[7]          “St. Eugenius of Carthage, saint of July 13.” https://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j081sdEugenius_7-13.htm (accessed Jun. 25, 2022).

[8]          “Eugenius of Carthage,” Wikipedia. Sep. 28, 2021. Accessed: Jun. 25, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eugenius_of_Carthage&oldid=1047002121