Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

Life

The son of the fisherman Zebedee and of Salome, the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos. Called by the Lord Jesus, John immediately left his father and his fishing nets and followed Christ with his brother James. And from then on he never parted from his Lord until the very end. With Peter and James he was present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the Transfiguration of the Lord. At the Mystical Supper he laid his head upon the breast of Jesus. When all the others had forsaken the crucified Lord, John with the Most Holy Theotokos remained at the foot of the Cross. By the Lord's command he was thereafter as a son to the Holy Virgin Mary, and faithfully served and watched over her until her Dormition. After the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, John went with his disciple Prochorus to preach the Gospel in Asia Minor. He labored and worked chiefly in Ephesus. By his inspired preaching and his wonderworking he converted many to Christianity and shook paganism to its foundations. The embittered pagans bound him and sent him to Rome, to the Emperor Domitian. Before the emperor he was tortured and beaten; but when neither the deadliest poison that they gave him to drink nor the boiling oil into which they cast him did him any harm, the emperor took fright, and considering him immortal, sent him into exile on the island of Patmos. On this island Saint John converted many to Christianity by his words and miracles, and firmly established the Church of God. There he wrote his Gospel and the Apocalypse. In the time of Emperor Nerva, who granted freedom to all prisoners, John set out once more for Ephesus, where he lived for some time, strengthening the work he had begun earlier. He was over one hundred years old when he reposed in the Lord. When his disciples later opened his grave, they did not find his body, but every year on May 8 a fine, fragrant, and healing dust came forth from his tomb. After a long life of many labors and many fruits upon the earth, this beloved disciple of Christ and pillar of the Church departed to the joy of his Lord, to a peaceful and immortal joy.

From the Hymn of Praise

Holy John the Evangelist,Son of the fisherman Zebedee,Young he was when the loveOf Jesus mightily warmed him.