| Veniamin Evsevidis | |
| Church: | Eastern Orthodox Church, then Greek Byzantine Catholic Church |
| Diocese: | Neapolis/Nablus (Eastern Orthodox), Archbishop Emeritus (Catholic) |
| Enthroned: | 3 November 1862 |
| Ended: | 1895 or 1897 |
| Birth Date: | 20 June 1821 |
| Birth Place: | Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
| Death Date: | 1895 or 1897 |
| Death Place: | Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
| Buried: | Cathedral of the Holy Spirit |
| Birth Name: | Dimitrios Evsevidis |
| Native Name Lang: | el |
Veniamin (Benjamin) Evsevidis (el|Βενιαμίν Ευσεβίδης), born as Dimitrios Evsevidis (Δημήτριος Ευσεβίδης; 20 June 1821 – 1895 or 1897) was a bishop of the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church.
Dimitrios Evsevidis was born in a Greek Orthodox family on 20 June 1821 in Constantinople.[1] He studied at the Great School of the Nation and later at the Halki seminary.[1] On 6 August 1851 he was appointed titular archbishop of Neapolis[2] [3] and auxiliary bishop of the metropolis of Dabar-Bosna, based in Sarajevo, then under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople.[4] [5]
His Catholic philosophical tendencies were discovered in a letter intercepted by the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, and he was charged of apostasy.[1]
In 1858, he was summoned by the patriarchate to Constantinople where, on his own initiative, he was arrested and locked up in the monastery of Rila, in Ottoman Bulgaria.[6] [7] [8] The pontifical apostolic delegation requested help from the French embassy, and Ambassador Édouard Thouvenel became involved in the liberation of the archbishop, obtaining an order for release from the authorities.[7]
Evsevidis was arrested again in 1861 and locked up in Mount Athos, before being released again thanks to the French intervention.[6]
The sources are not particularly clear, but it seems that for a short time he returned to orthodoxy, but on 3 November 1862 he converted again to Catholicism.[9]
Thanks to the priest Joseph Lepavec, in 1863 he traveled to Rome, where he was confirmed at his home.[1] He was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic bishop of Constantinople, exercising his ministry among the Byzantine-rite Catholics of the city.[6] For most of the rest of his life he lived in Karaköy, in the monastery of a Franciscan convent, celebrating the divine daily liturgy at the church of Saint Anthony of Padua.[7] On June 17, 1867 Evsevidis was appointed assistant prelate to the pontifical throne of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.[10]
He participated in the First Vatican Council[2] [11] [12] In 1882 he ordered to the priesthood Isaias Papadopoulos, the future exarch of the Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Istanbul.[13]
He died in 1895[6] or, according to other sources, in 1897[1] and is buried in the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit of Istanbul.[1]