Legend
According to the legend, prior to his conversion to Christianity Eustace was a Roman general named Placidus, who served the emperor Trajan. While hunting a stag Placidus saw a vision of a crucifix lodged between the stag’s antlers. This experience shoked him and was immediately converted, had himself and his family baptized, and changed his name to Eustace (Greek: Εὐστάθιος “well standing, stable, steadfast”
There is a tradition that when he demonstrated his new faith by refusing to make a pagan sacrifice, the emperor Hadrian condemned Eustace, his wife, and his sons to death .
The lions should have killed them but instead they did not: they stopped dead in front of him and his family. He then continued to live on in the church that is across the street from our café, which was his house.