Evaristus

About Evaristus

Evaristus served the Roman church after Clement. Irenaeus includes him in a succession of bishops through whom the church publicly handed on its teaching.

Eusebius places Clement's handover to Evaristus in the third year of Trajan's reign. This is a report about ecclesiastical succession, not an account of Evaristus's childhood or arrival in Rome.

The Vatican's catalogue calls him the fifth pope and gives alternative starting years, 99 or 96, with 108 as the end of his pontificate. Those entries describe his office, not his birth.

Kirsch estimates his death around 107, but finds no authentic personal information in the earliest sources. He rejects the later parish-organization story as anachronistic and does not regard martyrdom as proved.

His memory continues in distinct local calendars. Nominis lists October 27 as a local observance. St. Gregory's Western Rite Orthodox parish instead commemorates him on October 26, retaining the traditional martyr designation. The Nominis martyrology notice places his leadership under the emperor Trajan.

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