Gertrude, her great-granddaughter Eusebia, though only twelve years old, succeeded her. Her mother, however, thought she was too young to be her own mistress, or to rule over others. She therefore ordered her to come to Marchiennes, but the young abbess refused to obey, and Rictrude was obliged to procure a lettre de cachet from Clovis II. to compel her daughter to come. She brought with her all her nuns, the body of her great-grandmother, and the other relics belonging to her church. She was so fond of her own convent that she often went there at night, accompanied only by a confidential attendant, sang the office in her own church, and returned to Marchiennes in the morning. Rictrude, hearing of it, remonstrated in vain, and finding it impossible to reduce her daughter to submission, had her whipped with such brutality by her brother, St. Maurontius, as to endanger her life. She was held in the arms of a young man wearing a sword, the hilt of which so hurt her side that she spat blood ever after. Although she lived many years afterwards, her wounds could never be entirely healed, so that she was kept in perpetual remembrance of her disobedience and humiliation. It was a tradition among the peasants of the place that the stick with which she was beaten fell to the ground and immediately took root and brought forth leaves. As she continued firm in her determination to go to Hamay and not remain with her mother at Marchiennes, Rictrude, after consulting several bishops and abbots, allowed Eusebia to return with her nuns to Hamay, where she governed wisely and set a holy example. She died, says Bailiet, in 660, at the age of twenty-three. Other authors say that she lived ten, and some say twenty years longer. She was succeeded by Gertrude, widow of Ingomar, count of Vermandois. The principal festival of St. Eusebia is the anniversary of her death, March 16; the others are commemorations of her translations, and of the dedication of her church, and not, as has been erroneously stated, the festivals of an early martyr, or of an imaginary Roman lady who found the body of St. Quentin.
Hamay was in the 18th century a priory dependent on Marchiennes, which was an abbey of Benedictine monks.
Her Life by an anonymous author was written about two hundred years after her death. It was founded on older memoirs which had been saved from the ravages of the Normans. She is also mentioned in the Life of her mother St. Rictrude, by Hucbald, a monk of St. Amand. AA.SS, Baillet.
St. Eusebia (6), a Roman lady who found the body of St. Quentin. Baillet says the story is unfounded, and the only St. Eusebia of whom anything is known is the Abbess of Hamay. Baillet.
St. Eusebia (7), Oct. 8, Nov. 24. † 731. Abbess of the monastery of St Ciricus, or Saviour, near Marseilles, which possessed the cross of St Andrew. Eusebia had been fifty years in this privileged house, when, in 731, the Saracens invaded Provence. The forty holy nuns, fearing that their inestimable treasure would be carried off, buried it deep with great care and labour. When the barbarians were at the gate, they all cut off their noses and lips. The Saracens broke in, and murdered them every one. Boll., AA.SS., Oct. 8. Mabillon. AA.SS. O.S.B., Nov. 24. Gynecæum. Eccentric Biography.
St. Eusoye, Eusebia (5).
St. Eustadia, Eustadiola.
St. Eustadiola, June 8, May 10 (Eustadia, Scuriola, Stadiola). 7th century. Founder and abbess of Moyen-Moutiers, at Bourges, in France. A young widow of high rank and great wealth. She gave all her possessions to the poor, made her houses in the town into churches in honour of the B. V. Mary and St. Eugema; gave her jewels for crosses, candelabra, chalices, and ornaments for these churches; and, with her maids, embroidered vestments and other things necessary for the service of the altar. She built and endowed a large convent, which she governed for many years. She decorated the walls of the church with beautiful embroidery, and the altar with costly hangings fringed with gold, all worked by herself and her women. For seventy years she never tasted flesh of beast or fowl. She died,
