St. Eustace

St. Eustace (died 2nd century; Western feast day September 2, Eastern feast day November 2) was one of the most famous early Christian martyrs venerated in the Eastern and Western churches. He is one of the 14 Holy Helpers (a group of saints conjointly honoured, especially in medieval Germany), and a patron saint of hunters. Eustace is also one of the patron saints of Madrid, and his emblems are either a crucifix, a stag, or an oven.

According to tradition, Eustace was a general named Placidas (Placidus) under the Roman emperor Trajan. During a hunting excursion near Tivoli, Italy, he encountered a stag with a crucifix glowing between its antlers, whereupon a divine voice prophesied that he was to suffer for Christ. That event accounts for his being named patron of hunters. Instantly and miraculously converted to Christianity, he was baptized (taking the name Eustachius) with his wife Theopistis (Theopista) and sons Agapitus (Agapius) and Theopistus.

After their conversion, disasters befell the family: Eustachius lost his property and saw his wife and children carried off by Imperial Romans. Finally restored to his former position, he was also reunited with his family. After refusing to sacrifice to the gods, however, he was seized and, with his family, roasted to death inside a brass bull. The Eustace story became a common narrative pattern in medieval romance.

His cult, probably of Eastern origin, was known in Rome from the 8th century. The 9th-century titular church of Sant’Eustachio in Rome and the Parisian churches of St. Denis and St. Eustache claim possession of his relics. In 1969 the feast day was among those eliminated from the church calendar so that celebration of it is not obligatory in the Universal Church.