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 kingLuitprand, 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 favours the third-century hypothesis. It is said that following his flight from Asti, Evasius took refuge in the forest known as Selva Cornea along with two companions Proietto and Maliano and probably a third, Natale. At the site of today's Pozzo Sant’Evasio, near Casale, a miracle occurred. The bishop, tired from his journey, pushed his crozier into the ground and lay down to sleep. The pastoral staffset root and blossomed and a spring appeared at its foot. Evasius continued his work of conversion in Casale, founded a small church dedicated to Lawrence the Deacon and attracted numerous followers. In some accounts he is identified as the first bishop of Casale. Again, however, the saint attracted fierce opposition, and he was beheaded along with Proietto, Maliano and 143 companions, on the orders of the prefect Atubolo. Skeletal analysis of his remains suggests that Evasius died at about the age of 60. In the version of his life which sets it in the third century, the date of Evasius's martyrdom is given as 1 December 292, during the reign of Diocletian, whose later persecution of Christians is well known. For the version of the story which places it in the first part of the eighth century, the context is that of the struggle between those Lombards who remained attached to their Arian beliefs and the soon-to-be-victorious Trinitariannew guard, associated particularly with the Catholic Theodolinda who had been Lombard queen from 588 to 628, and to which King Luitprand belonged.
Legacy
Saint Natale is held to have escaped the massacre and to have become priest of the church which was newly dedicated to Evasius and in which his remains were sepulchred. At the same time the church was perhaps rebuilt on a larger scale with the support of Luitprand. Casale, now itself named after the saint as "Casale di Sant’Evasio", grew up around the church during the middle ages. A new and much larger church was consecrated by Pope Paschal II in 1107. In 1215 Ghibelline Casale was sacked by the anti-Imperial forces of Alessandria and Vercelli together with the support of Milan. The saint's remains were removed to Alessandria along with other booty. In 1403 Casalese condottiereFacino Cane brought the relics back from Alessandria, following a military victory over that town. The church of Sant’Evasio became a cathedral with the establishment of the Diocese of Casale in 1474. At Pozzo Sant’Evasio in 1670 a church was erected over the miraculous spring, which had been turned into a well whose waters were reputed to cure diseases.
