Order of Saint Paul The First Hermit - Blessed Eusebius of Esztergom

Blessed Eusebius of Esztergom

Blessed Eusebius was born in Esztergom in the Kingdom of Hungary around 1200. He came from a wealthy, well to do family. He received his Ordination in the cathedral in Esztergom as a Canon Regular of Saint Augustine. In 1216, he received permission from the bishop to leave the cathedral and he began a hermitage in Pilis. In 1246, more of his brother canons and other hermits along the river Danube lived with him near Pilisszántó.

Around 1250 he founded the first real Pauline community at the monastery of the Holy Cross, where they adopted the rule hermits from the monastery of St. James in Patach (founded in 1215 by Bishop Bartholomew of Pécs ).In 1256 he was elected the first Provincial of the Order. In 1262 he asked the Pope Urban IV established for the approval of the religious community, where they were given a temporal approval.On December 13, 1308 Cardinal Gentilis, as a legate of Pope Clement V, travelled from Rome to Hungary to grant the approval, and on this day he also bestowed the rule of Saint Augustine on behalf of the Holy See. A year later, the first monastic constitutions were approved.

Eusebius died on January 20, 1270, in the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Pilisszentkereszt. He was buried interred in the Monastery crypt. During the 150 years of Turkish occupation in Hungary, the Church and Monastery of the Holy Cross as well as his grave was destroyed. November 16, 2004 the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in approving the new liturgical calendar of the Pauline Order, authorized the inclusion of the 20 January at the feast of Bl. Eusebius of Esztergom. it is noteworthy to mention that due to the close relation between the Hungarian people and the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, Blessed Eusebius was always referred to by the people as Blessed not long after his death and to this very day.