Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
Apostle (Feast)
- Feast Day
- December 27
- Life
- d. 100
- Born
- Bethsaida, Galilee
John, son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of Saint James the Greater, was a Galilean fisherman of Bethsaida and Capernaum who, with his brother and partners Peter and Andrew, was called by Jesus from his nets at the Sea of Galilee (Mark 1:19-20; Luke 5:10). He belonged with Peter and James to the inner circle of the Twelve, present at the raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and the Agony in the Garden. The Fourth Gospel identifies him by indirection as the disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple who reclined on Jesus's breast at the Last Supper (John 13:23) and the only male disciple at the foot of the Cross, to whom Jesus entrusted his mother (John 19:26-27). After the Resurrection he appears with Peter at the empty tomb (John 20:3-10) and at the lakeside (John 21).
The unanimous tradition of the second-century Church (Saint Irenaeus, Polycrates of Ephesus, Clement of Alexandria) identifies him as the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Letters of John, and the Book of Revelation. After the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) and the death of Mary, John is said to have settled at Ephesus, the great city of Roman Asia, where he formed a circle of disciples (including Saint Polycarp of Smyrna and Saint Ignatius of Antioch) who carried his theological tradition into the second century. He is the only one of the Twelve who, by ancient tradition, was not martyred, having been exiled to the island of Patmos under the Emperor Domitian (where he received the visions of Revelation) and dying at Ephesus in extreme old age around the year 100. In 2026 his Feast on December 27 yields to the Sunday Feast of the Holy Family.
John is the apostle of love (his First Letter is dominated by the command God is love and we ought to love one another) and of the Incarnation (the Prologue of his Gospel proclaims the Word made flesh). The Eagle of the Tetramorph - because his Gospel soars at once to the eternal Word - has been his iconographic symbol since Saint Irenaeus.
Patronages
theologians · writers · publishers · burn victims · Asia Minor
From Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Catholic Churches Named After Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. John the Evangelist — Logan, KS
- Saint John the Baptist — South Bend, IN
- St. John the Baptist Parish — Chinsali
- St. John the Baptist Parish — Bulawayo
- St. John Vianney Mission — Esigodini
- St. John Baptist - Birunduma
- Church of St. John the Baptist, Sungai Siput — Sungai Siput, PERAK
- St John's
- St. John the Baptist Catholic Church — Prentice, WI
- St. John's
- Sts. John and Paul Church (St. Mary Magdalene Parish) — New Maryland, NB
- John the Baptist - Bonnyrigg/Edensor Park — Bonnyrigg Heights, NSW
- Saint John’s Parish — Barraba, NSW
- St John the Baptist, Lismore — Lismore, VIC
- St John's, Skipton — Skipton, VIC
- St John the Apostle. Goolwa — Goolwa, SA
- St John Mary Vianney Church — Gnowangerup, WA
- St John's Church — Rangeway, WA
- St Johns Catholic Church — Iola, KS
- St John the Baptist Catholic Church — Tapanui
Sources