St. John, Apostle and
Evangelist
(Feast day - December 27th)
St. John, the son of Zebedee,
and the brother of St. James the Great, was called to be an Apostle by our Lord in the
first year of His public ministry. He became the "beloved disciple" and the only
one of the Twelve who did not forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion. He stood
faithfully at the cross when the Savior made him the guardian of His Mother. His later
life was passed chiefly in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia
Minor. He wrote the fourth Gospel, and three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation is also
attributed to him. Brought to Rome, tradition relates that he was by order of Emperor
Dometian cast into a cauldron of boiling oil but came forth unhurt and was banished to the
island of Pathmos for a year. He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow
apostles, and died at Ephesus about the year 100. St. John is called the Apostle of
Charity, a virtue he had learned from his Divine Master, and which he constantly
inculcated by word and example. The "beloved disciple" died at Ephesus, where a
stately church was erected over his tomb. It was afterwards converted into a Mohammedan
mosque.
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