Eusebius of Nicomedia
Arian bishop who baptized Constantine
b. 3rd century · d. 341
29th Archbishop of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarch) · 339–341
Offices
- Archbishop of Constantinople (Ecumenical Patriarch) № 29 · 339 – 341
Eusebius of Nicomedia was an Arian priest who baptised Constantine the Great on his deathbed in 337. A fifth-century legend evolved that Pope Sylvester I was the one to baptise Constantine, but this is dismissed by scholars as a forgery "to amend the historical memory of the Arian baptism that the emperor received at the end of his life, and instead to attribute an unequivocally orthodox baptism to him". He was a bishop of Berytus in Phoenicia. He was later made the bishop of Nicomedia, where the Imperial court resided. He lived finally in Constantinople from 338 up to his death.
Related people
- Paul I of Constantinople succeeded · inferred
- Wilfilas consecrator of · traditional
Events
Places
- Constantinople death
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- The Seven Ecumenical Councils (NPNF series 2 vol. 14) 1 claim — First Council of Nicaea
- Oriens Christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus 1 claim — Oriens Christianus I, col. 195 sqq. — Patriarchae Constantinopolitani