Saint Evasius

Saint Evasius
Giovanni Martino Spanzotti, The saints Evasio (probably) and Peter Martyr. Oil on wood, c. 1595–1600. National Gallery, London.
Born	3rd, 4th, or 8th century AD in the area of Benevento, Italy
Died	3rd, 4th, or 8th century AD near Casale Monferrato, Italy.
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Duomo of Casale Monferrato
Feast	December 1, 12 November
Attributes	Crozier and Mitre
Patronage	Bizzarone (CO), Casale Monferrato (AL), Pedrengo (BG), Rocchetta Palafea (AT)

Saint Evasius (Italian: Sant'Evasio; probably third century AD) is believed to have been a missionary and bishop of Asti, in north-west Italy. He was forced to flee to the great Padan forest known as the Selva Cornea, where he and numerous followers were beheaded by pagan, or alternatively by Arian, enemies in the area of what is now Casale Monferrato. He is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and is the patron of a number of towns in Piedmont and Lombardy. His cult is liveliest at Casale, where his remains are conserved in the cathedral dedicated to him.

No account of Evasius’s life is regarded by scholars of hagiography as reliable. According to the Historia e vita di Sant'Evasio Vescovo e Martire by the Augustinian Fulgenzio Emiglio, published in 1708, he was born in Benevento, moved to Rome in 260 and was sent as a bishop to Asti in 265. There he suffered persecution at the hands of pagan opponents of Christianity and was forced to leave the town. The earliest account of the story, the anonymous Passio Sancti Evasii, which has been variously dated at early eleventh-century, tenth-century and ninth-century, sets it in the times of the Lombard king Luitprand, who reigned during the years 712–744. In the versions deriving from the latter, Evasius’s opponents were Lombard adherents of Arian Christianity, rather than pagans. Still other accounts place his life during the fourth century and have him consecrated as Asti’s first bishop around 330. Carbon dating of his relics (assuming that they are genuine) favours the third-century hypothesis.