Page "Eusebius of Alexandria" Paragraph 1

These homilies enjoyed some renown in the Eastern Church in the sixth and seventh centuries.

Their homiletical merit does not rise above mediocrity, and nothing is known of the author.

In all events, he was not a patriarch of Alexandria, as is affirmed in an early biography ( MPG, lxxxvi.

1, pp. 297 – 310 ), written by one Johannes, a notary, and stating that Eusebius was called by Cyril to be his successor in the episcopate.

The discourses belong probably to the fifth or sixth century, and possibly originated in Alexandria.

They deal with the life of Jesus of Nazareth and with questions of ecclesiastical life and practise, which they resolve in a monastic-ascetic way.

Their literary character is not quite clear ; while most of them are adapted for public delivery, not a few bear the character of ecclesiastical pronouncements.

They are printed in MPG, lxxxvi.

1, pp. 287 – 482, 509-536, except four included among John Chrysostom's works.

The fragments preserved in the so-called Sacra parallela are to be found in Karl Holl's Fragmente vornicänischer Kirchenväter ( T U, new series, v. 2, Leipzig, 1899 ), pp. 314 – 332.

A homily concerning the observance of Sunday is attributed by Zahn to Eusebius of Emesa.