Saint Eustace

Who they were

Eustace was martyred, by tradition, under Hadrian around 118. The legend tells that Placidus, a pagan Roman general under Trajan, saw a stag with a crucifix between its antlers and heard a voice telling him he would suffer much for Christ. He was baptised as Eustace, with his wife Theopista and sons Agapius and Theopistus; misfortune scattered the family, which was later reunited, and for refusing to sacrifice after a victory they were all put to death in a heated brazen bull.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Eustace has been honoured as a martyr since early times, in East and West. The Catholic Encyclopedia judges his Acts, written in the seventh century, to be fabulous, though his veneration is very old.

Why that counted as sanctity

The story of Eustace is of a soldier called by Christ through His cross, who with his whole family kept faith through loss and death.