EVARISTUS:
The fifth pope; consecrated about 100; died about 109. The breviary of Pope Pius V. reserves Oct. 26 to the memory of "Evaristus Græcus ex Judæo parte Trajano Imperatore Pontificatum gessit." From this it would follow that this pope was a Jew, whose father was a native of Bethlehem, and therefore, no doubt, a Roman provincial. Evaristus, then, must have been a Greek-speaking Jew, and, under the laws of the empire, a Roman subject. Of his life little is known. He died under either Trajan or Hadrian, and is said to be buried near St. Peter's body in the Vatican.
Bibliography:
- Acta Sanctorum, (Bollandus), lviii. (ad Octob. xxvi., tom. xi.), Paris, 1870;
- Analecta Romana, vol. i, ed. H. Grisar, Rome, 1899;
- A Harnack, Die Chronologie der Altchristlichen Litteratur, i. 1897;
- W. H. Simcox, The Beginnings of the Christian Church, 2d ed., 1892;
- Milman, History of Later Christianity, i.
