Background
Nothing is known about his childhood and early life.
Nothing is known about his childhood and early life.
According to tradition, Eustace was born with the Roman name of Placidus and served as a general in the Roman army under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. While hunting one day, he beheld a stag with a crucifix between its horns and heard a voice saying that he would suffer much for Christ's sake. He and his family became Christians. His faith was tested: his wealth was stolen; his servants died of a plague; when the family took a sea-voyage, the ship's captain kidnapped Eustace's wife; and as Eustace crossed a river with his two sons Agapius and Theopistus, the children were taken away by a wolf and a lion. Despite all of the calamanties, he didn't lose his faith. Then, he reunited with his family and restored to his former prestige. They were subsequently put to be roasted to death inside a bronze statue of a bull or an ox for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods in the AD 118. The Catholic Church rejects this story, reffering to it as "completely false".
He was married to Theopista, they had two sons, Agapius and Theopistus.