Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

Feast

St. John was a fisherman with his father, Zebedee, and brother, James, at the Sea of Galilee. To the brothers, Jesus bestowed the title “sons of thunder.” This beloved disciple participated in many of Jesus’ more private events including the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration, and the tender bestowing of his Mother Mary to St. John at the foot of the cross. He is credited with writing the Fourth Gospel.

St. John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” was the only one of the apostles to die not of martyrdom but of old age, around the year 100. Still, he has been honored as a martyr from the earliest days after his death, because of an incident related by Tertullian, in which John, while in Rome, was placed in a pot of boiling oil but emerged unharmed. The love which Jesus bears is never barren. Of this his sufferings and death are the strongest proof. As St. John had the happiness to be distinguished by Christ in his holy love, so was he also in its glorious effects.

Via divineoffice.org