Who He Was

Pope Evaristus succeeded Clement in the bishopric of the Roman Church according to Irenaeus (130-202 AD), Hegesippus (110-180 AD), Eusebius (4th c. historian), and countless subsequent authors. He reigned from 97/99–107 AD.

Roman Christian Hierarchy Under Evaristus

Evaristus, being clearly proved to be the bishop of Rome by all the early authors, was the head of a hierarchical Church. This Church was reffered to by Bishop Ignatius of Antioch (35-107 AD), a contemporary of Evaristus ordained by the Apostles, as the “Catholic Church”. Deacons and presbyter-bishops were clearly present in the Roman Church as is evident from the writings of Clement (the immediate predecessor of Evaristus, Clement, reigned from around 88-99 AD). According to Pope Clement, the hierarchy was threefold as in the levitical structure of the Old Testament.

Clement says the presbyters (from the greek presbyteroi-where we get ‘priest’) offer sacrifices, and he articulates clearly the importance of apostolic succession. The members of this Church hierarchy were ordained by the Apostles, or became successors of those appointed by the Apostles. The laying on of hands of the priesthood is found in 1 Timothy 4:14:

“Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate.”

The earliest full text of an ordination rite we have is from the third century, and it describes the bishop imposing hands upon the candidate.

Liturgy in the Early Catholic and Roman Churches

The early priests/bishops presided at this time over simple Eucharistic liturgies. Numerous sources from the 1st and 2nd centuries attest to this (Didache, Paul, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus). The bishop, or a presbyter delegated by him, would lead in hymns, say prayers, teach, etc. People would bring forth bread and wine, which, after the prayers and invocation of the priest, would be recognized as Christ’s body and blood. This was seen also as a sacrificial offering of the sacramental species, and as showing forth the death of the Lord. Around these key components many adornments, churches, chants, and rituals developed-all the while the core essentials of the Mass stayed the same.
Further insights into the liturgy, beliefs, practices, and hierarchy of the early Roman Church can be gained from Evaristus’s predecessor Clement. Clement states that all things liturgical were done with order, and that all members of the hierarchy (including lay people) must follow the proper ordinances. Clement’s epistle contains long beautiful liturgical prayers that likely would have been used by Evaristus.

The Christians of Evaristus’s time in Rome buried their martyrs and dead alongside Peter. They celebrated their liturgies, however, in house churches:
According to Yale University archaeologists,

“The first Christian congregations worshipped in private houses, meeting at the homes of wealthier members on a rotating basis . . . Worship was generally conducted in the atrium, or central courtyard of the house.”

“Small Relational Churches” https://ntrf.org/first-century-house-churches/

In the earliest days of the Christian religion, there were no buildings specially consecrated to Eucharistic worship; the assemblies for liturgical service were held in private houses (Acts 2:46; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 2).

The Primacy of Rome in Evaristus’s Day

The Roman church had already required obedience of the faraway Corinthian Church in the reign of Clement I (Prior to the reign of Evaristus). Ignatius, toward the end or immediately following the papacy of Evaristus, described the Roman Church in the following way,

…worthy of honour, worthy of the highest happiness, worthy of praise, worthy of obtaining her every desire, worthy of being deemed holy, and which presides over love [or presides in love or presides over the church that is the brotherhood of love]

Ignatius of Antioch, Ep. To the Romans

Ignatius also indicated Rome taught other Churches,

You have never envied any one; you have taught others. Now I desire that those things may be confirmed, which in your instructions you enjoin

Ibid.

We know from other early church fathers, who write over the subsequent three hundred years, that Rome was the principal Church. We know from Irenaeus (130-202 AD) that Rome was founded by Peter and Paul, and that every church of necessity would resort to the Roman Church on account of its principality. Tertullian (155-220AD), the Poem Against Marcion (3rd Century), St. Cyprian (200-258 AD), Pope Stephen (Reigned 254-257 AD), St. Jerome (347-420 AD), St. Augustine (354-430 AD), and numerous others demonstrate that the bishop of Rome sits in a special throne of St. Peter. It can be historically stated, with reasonable certainty, that Evaristus sat in the chair of St. Peter. Pope Evaristus was the successor of the Prince of the Apostles in the leadership of the Universal Church.

A quote from St. Irenaeus of Lyons captures how a learned bishop of the second century viewed the Roman Church (and the bishops thereof). Irenaeus, in Against Heresies, says,

It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about. For if the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they were in the habit of imparting to the perfect apart and privily from the rest, they would have delivered them especially to those to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves. For they were desirous that these men should be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving behind as their successors, delivering up their own place of government to these men; which men, if they discharged their functions honestly, would be a great boon [to the Church], but if they should fall away, the direst calamity. Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its great principality To this Clement there succeeded Evaristus. The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate. Of this Linus, Paul makes mention in the Epistles to Timothy. To him succeeded Anacletus; and after him, in the third place from the apostles, Clement was allotted the bishopric… To this Clement there succeeded Evaristus.

Against Heresies, Book III, Ch. III

A beautiful way to close any study about Evaristus is Dom Prosper Gueranger’s tribute to him:

Thou art the first Pontiff to whom the Church was entrusted after the departure of all those who had seen the Lord. The world could then say in all strictness: If we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we know him so no longer. The Church was now more truly an exile; at that period, which was not without perils and anxieties, her Spouse gave to thee the charge of teaching her to pursue alone her path of faith and hope and love. And thou didst not betray the confidence of our Lord. Earth owes thee, on this account, a special gratitude, O Evaristus; and a special reward is doubtless thine. Watch still over Rome and the Church. Teach us that we must be ready not only to fast here on earth, but to be resigned to the absence of the Bridegroom when he hides himself; and not the less to serve him and love him with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength, as long as the world endures, and he is pleased to leave us therein.

Dom Prosper Gueranger, Liturgical Year

Reverend Alban Butler, in his voluminous and renouned Lives of the Saints wrote the following on Evaristus,

St. Evaristus was buried near St. Peter’s tomb, on the Vatican. The disciples of the apostles, by assiduous meditation on heavenly things, were so swallowed up in the life to come, that they seemed no longer inhabitants of this world, but of heaven, where their thoughts and affections were placed, and whither they directed all their actions, even their necessary attention to temporal concerns. If the generality of Christians now-a-days esteem and set their hearts so much on earthly goods, and so easily lose sight of eternity in the course of their actions, they are no longer animated by the spirit of the primitive saints, and are become children of this world, slaves to its vanities, and to their own irregular passions. If we do not correct this disorder of our hearts, and conform our interior to the spirit of Christ, we cannot be entitled to his promises.

Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, “Saint Evaristus, Pope and Martyr”