The feast day of St. John the Evangelist, one of the authors of the Gospels, is celebrated Dec. 27. Also known as St. John the Divine, the day honors 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.
His later life was passed chiefly in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia Minor and he wrote many important works, including the fourth Gospel and three Epistles (although many scholars believe that the final editing of the Gospel was done by others shortly after his death). The Book of Revelation is also attributed to him.
Brought to Rome, tradition relates that he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil on the orders of Emperor Domitian but came forth unhurt, and then was banished to the Greek island of Patmos for a year.
He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles, and died in Ephesus about the year 100.
St. John is called the Apostle of Charity, a virtue he had learned from his Divine Master, and which he constantly inculcated by word and example. A stately church was later erected over his tomb in Ephesus.
It was afterwards converted into a mosque.
— Catholic News Agency