Evasius of Asti

Saint Evasius of Asti was bishop of Asti in northern Italy at the turn of the seventh and eighth centuries and is venerated as a saint. He is said to have been born at Benevento. Our sources mention only his veneration in the Western Church.

The years of his episcopate are not certain. The oldest catalogue of the bishops of Asti, compiled in 1605 by order of a bishop, says that he held the see from 685 to 713. More probably, however, his activity should be placed in the 730s and his death around 740. The report that he was still alive in 783 is not true. Before him the bishop was Benenatus, mentioned in 680.

The Martyrdom of Evasius, written between 839 and 983, says that his homeland was the city of Benevento, where he also received holy orders. Having become known for his preaching, both at the court of the Lombard kings and at the Roman curia, he was set by the pope, at the request of Liutprand, at the head of the diocese of Asti. According to some sources he held the see twenty-⁠eight years, according to others thirty-⁠eight. According to the Life, shortly before his death King Liutprand gave the diocese the city of Sedula (probably present-⁠day Casale Monferrato). But the Arians who lived there resisted. By order of Duke Attubald, who had earlier ruled Sedula, Evasius was seized, condemned to death and then killed. Soon after his death the murdered bishop began to be venerated as a saint by the adherents of orthodoxy in the region, and in the tenth century a cult of Saint Evasius is mentioned in Asti itself.

It is not known for sure how much of the Martyrdom corresponds to real events. It may be that only two things are certain: that in the time of King Liutprand there was a bishop of Asti named Evasius and that he died at the hands of enemies, not necessarily of other beliefs. It is supposed that the report of the martyr's death of Bishop Evasius was later attributed to another local saint of the same name, of the fourth century, whom some writings call bishop of Asti, although he never was. Evasius is the last known bishop of Asti of the Lombard period. The opinion that there was a bishop Evasinus in the time of the Frankish conquest is thought mistaken. The next sure bishop was Egidolf, mentioned in the 870s.