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Saint John the Beloved St. John, son of Zebedee, brother of James (Matthew 4:21-22), was called to be an Apostle in the first year of Christ's ministry and given the title "beloved disciple" because of the deep love he shared with the Master Jesus. He witnessed, along with Peter and James, the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Matthew 17:1-9). John was the apostle who laid his head upon Christ's breast at the last supper and heard the beat of the Divine Heart. The only one of the twelve disciples who didn't forsake Christ in the hour of His death on the Cross, John stood faithfully and sorrowfully by, providing comfort to Christ's Mother and Mary Magdalene, and accepted Christ's command to become his mother's guardian (John 19:25-27). To him alone was given this special privilege of being treated by her as if she had been his natural mother. St. John, though full of overwhelming grief for the death of his Master, left not the cross but stayed to witness the whole mystery of which he later bore record. It is believed he was present at the taking down of Christ's body from the cross and that he helped to present it to his most blessed mother, and afterwards helped to lay it in the tomb, watering it with an abundance of his tears, and kissing it with extraordinary devotion and tenderness. St. John wrote the fourth Gospel, the three epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation. Brought to Rome, tradition relates he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil but came forth unharmed and was then banished to the island of Pathmos for a year. He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles, and founded many churches in Asia Minor. The "beloved disciple" died at Ephesus, where a church was erected over his tomb. It was afterwards converted into a Mohammedan mosque. |
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