The church is said to have been built on the site of the house of the priest and confessor, Eusebius of Rome, who died c. 357. It is recorded as the Titulus Eusebii in the acts of the 499 synod. It is again mentioned in the acts of a council held in Rome under Pope Symmachus in 498. The church was rebuilt by Pope Zacharias, and was consecrated "in honorem beatorum Eusebii et Vincentii" by Pope Gregory IX, after the restoration of 1238.[1] A plaque commemorating the rebuilding is located on the porch of the church.
The Romanesque style, dating back to this restoration, survived to the restorations of the 17th, 18th, and 20th centuries. The church once belonged to the Celestines. The annexed monastery housed one of the first printing workshop in the city. In 1627, the monastery was raised from a priory to an abbey, but abolished in 1810.[2] The order subsequently became extinct.[3]Pope Leo XII gave Sant'Eusebio to the Jesuits. After the Jesuits were expelled in 1873, the monastery was seized by the state, and Sant'Eusebio eventually became a parish church staffed by diocesan clergy.
The small piazza outside the church hosts an annual blessing for the animals on the 17 January – the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot. The tradition dates back to 1437 and was transferred to Sant'Eusebio in the early 20th century from the nearby Church of Sant’Antonio Abate.[4]
Roman ruins dating back to the second century have been discovered underneath the present building. It is first mentioned in 474, in an inscription in the catacombs of Saints Marcellino e Pietro. However, archeological remains suggest an original construction date of around the turn of the fifth century.[1]
Only the bell tower remains of Gregory IX's renovations. The five-arched portico was erected in 1711.
The interior is separated into a nave with two flanking aisles. The present design dates to 1600 work by Onorio Longhi, who restored the presbytery, main altar, and choir. The ceiling fresco is a neoclassical masterpiece of Anton Raphael Mengs depicting the Glory of Sant'Eusebio (1757).
The main altar has custody of the relics of St Eusebius of Rome,[5] who is supposed to have commissioned and financed construction of the church in the 4th century.
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