December 27 : Saint John the Apostle

St. John, the son of Zebedee and 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 Christ made him the guardian of His Mother. After the Assumption of Mary, John went to Ephesus. John is known as the author of the Gospel of John and four other books in the New Testament – the three Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation. 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 in Ephesus about the year AD 98. St. John is called the Apostle of Charity, the patron saint of love, loyalty, friendships, and authors.