Hieromartyr Evodius, Bishop of Antioch

Hieromartyr Evodius, Bishop of Antioch, one of the Seventy Apostles, was the first bishop of Antioch after St. Peter and the direct predecessor of St. Ignatius the God-bearer, who honored him in his epistle to the Antiochians as "your blessed father." Tradition holds he was ordained bishop by Peter and/or Paul and governed the church for 27 years.

The Byzantine historian John Malalas credits him with being the first to call Christ's followers "Christians."

Eastern tradition holds he died a martyr's death under Emperor Nero around 66 AD; however, this martyrdom account is first documented only in the 9th century by a Western source (the Archbishop of Vienne), centuries after the fact, and Catholic tradition regards a natural death as at least equally likely. No writings of his survive.

His feast is kept on September 7/20.

HONEST CAVEAT: unlike St. Eustathius and St. Dionysius of Corinth (whose entries in this database were corrected from "martyr" to "hierarch"), the Orthodox liturgical tradition consistently retains the title "hieromartyr" for Evodius — the category is left unchanged, but the actual historical attestation of his martyrdom is acknowledged as weak.