St. John the apostle was the son of Zebedee, the brother of St. James the Great, and the “beloved disciple” of Jesus. He was the only one of the twelve apostles who did not forsake the Lord in the hour of his passion and death, and stood faithfully at the cross while Christ made him the guardian of his mother Mary.
After the death and resurrection of Christ, John spent time in Jerusalem and Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia Minor, and wrote many important works, including the fourth Gospel and three Epistles. The Book of Revelation is also traditionally attributed to him.
According to tradition, John was brought to Rome, and the emperor Dometian ordered him to be cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. John came out of the cauldron unharmed, and was banished to the island of Patmos for a year.
John lived to extreme old age, surviving all the other apostles. He died in Ephesus around the year 100.
John is called the Apostle of Charity, a virtue he lived by constantly in word and example.
