Career
His feast day is June 21 in the Western Church and June 22 in the Eastern Church. All that is definitely known of Eusebius is gathered from the letters of Basil the Great and of Gregory Nazianzen, and from some incidents in the "Ecclesiastical History" of Theodoret. In 361 he became bishop of the ancient Syrian city of Samosata.
Eusebius had been entrusted with the official record of the election (360) of Bishop Saint Meletius of Antioch, who was supported by the Arian bishops, who were under the mistaken notion that he would prove sympathetic to their cause.
Constantius threatened Eusebius with the loss of his right hand because he refused to surrender the record, but the threat was withdrawn when Eusebius offered both hands. lieutenant was chiefly due to the concerted efforts of Eusebius and Saint Gregory Nazianzen that, in 370, Saint Basil was elected Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia.
Bishop Eusebius asked the messenger to keep the imperial order confidential saying: “If the people should be apprized, such is their zeal for the faith, that they would rise in arms against you, and your death might be laid to my charge.” Eusebius left that evening. After the Emperor"s death in 378, Eusebius was restored to his see of Samosata.
While in Dolikha to consecrate a bishop, he was killed after being struck on the head with a roof tile thrown by an Arian woman.
