Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist

We shall not report here what he has in common with Saint James the Greater, his saint Jacques le Majeur Elder brother of Saint John, apostle. elder brother; that is to say, what concerns his country, his parents, his vocation to follow Our Lord, his election to the dignity of Apostle, the name of Boanerges or son of thunder, which was given to him; his presence at the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, and at the mystery of the Transfiguration; his zeal against those who had refused entry to their city to his divine Master; the request he had his mother make for one of the first places in his kingdom, nor the liberty he took, with three others, to inquire of him, during the week of his Passion, when the things he told them of his second coming would happen. We have treated all these points at great length in the life of the same Saint James, on July 25th, and we have not separated these two brothers there, whom the sacred text of the Gospel has everywhere very closely united.

The first time he speaks of it in particular is when it was a question of preparing the Last Supper that Our Lord wished to eat with his Disciples, before instituting the Eucharist and giving his blood for the salvation of the world. Saint John was deputed for this with Saint P saint Pierre Apostle mentioned for the setting of the procession date. eter, to show us that the contemplation signified by Saint John, and the good life, represented by Saint Peter, must be joined together when one wishes to prepare oneself worthily for the mystical Supper. He acquitted himself very well of this commission, and prepared a large room, where, after Jesus had eaten the Paschal Lamb with his Apostles, he washed their feet and sat down again at the table to share with them the heavenly food of his body and his precious blood.

It is properly here that the singular favors of this great Master toward his disciple begin; it is here that he gives reason for the first time to call him "the Disciple whom Jesus loved." In this mysterious meal, he had him placed beside him, as one who, being a virgin, was also the most worthy to approach his person and to become familiar with him; and, because this dear Disciple was urged by Saint Peter to ask him secretly who was the one in the company who would deliver him into the hands of the Jews, this amiable Savior, to speak to him more confidentially, permitted him, as a mother to her child, to rest on his bosom and to lean his head on his chest. But the grace he received at this moment far surpassed that which Salome, his mother, had dared to ask for him, since he had the honor of having his face pressed against his heart, whereas she had only asked that he be seated at his left, no doubt yielding the right to his elder brother.

The holy Fathers make admirable reflections on this favor. Some say that John fell asleep on this mysterious bed, which is the seat of wisdom; but it must be understood as the sleep of contemplation and ecstasy. This is how Saint Lawrence Justinian speaks of it, in chapter v of the book De Agone. Saint Augustine repeats, in several places, that, having approached this source of light, he drew from it the highest secrets of our mysteries, which he shared with the whole Church; that is why, on Psalm CXLIV, he calls him Avidissimus epulator, cui non sufficit ipsa mensa Domini, nisi discumberet supra pectus ejus, et de arcano ejus liberet divina secreta. — The author of the Epistle on the Perfect Man, among the works of Saint Jerome, says that he rested his head on the Savior's chest, as on the Ark of the Old and New Testament, and that, by this means, he entered not only into the courtyard of the divine oracle, but into the sanctuary and into the most mysterious place: that is why he gives him the name of Diligens Inquisitor and of familiaris Sacerdos.

He therefore asked his Master who was the perfidious one and the traitor who would render himself guilty of his blood. Jesus Christ still wished to spare the honor of the one who did not wish to spare his life; but, being able to refuse nothing to his beloved, he indicated him to him in secret, telling him that it was the one to whom he would give a piece of bread, and he immediately presented it to Judas. The other Apostles did not perceive what he meant; and even when he said to the traitor: "Do quickly what you want to do," they persuaded themselves that he was recommending him to buy the things necessary for the feast, or to give some alms to the poor, because he was like the bursar of the sacred College. It appears, by the sequence of the Savior's life, that after the institution of the Supper and the thanksgiving rendered to his Father, he began this admirable discourse which Saint John alone has shared with the Church, in chapters XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, and XVII of his Gospel. He then went to the Mount of Olives, and, wishing to make his prayer there in secret, he took with him only Saint Peter, Saint James, and our blessed Apostle. The sadness and bitterness with which his soul was filled, because of what he had just learned of the betrayal of Judas, overwhelmed him so much that he fell asleep three times, with the other two Apostles.

He also showed cowardice at the capture of his dear Master, since Saint Mark does not except him from this general proposition: Tunc discipuli ejus relinquentes eum, omnes fugerunt: "Then his disciples left him, and all fled."

If Saint John committed a cowardice on this occasion, he soon repaired it by his fervor and by the assiduity he rendered to his adorable Master and to the Blessed Virgin, his Mother, throughout the rest of his Passion. He came to the house of la sainte Vierge Mother of Jesus, entrusted to the care of John at the foot of the cross. Caiaphas; and, although he was known there, and consequently had reason to fear being arrested there, he did not fail to enter and even to have Saint Peter enter. There is much appearance that he remained there all night, and that he only left to go and warn the Blessed Virgin of all that was happening regarding her beloved Son. He consoled her in her sorrow, and, as to fulfill all justice, she had to assist at the last violences of his Passion, he led her to Calvary. He was the only one of all the Apostles who saw this innocent victim crucified and immolated, he was the only one who remained at the foot of the cross until the moment of his death, he was the only one upon whom the drops of his precious blood splashed, he was the only one to whom this amiable Savior addressed his speech to give him the last pledges of his love. But what did he say to him and what did he do in his favor?

Here is what surpasses all our thoughts, and raises Saint John above all imaginable greatness and dignities. He made him the vicar of his love toward his Mother, he gave him his place, he willed that he recognize her as his own, he said to him: Ecce Mater tua: "Behold your Mother. She was mine, she is and she shall henceforth be yours; I give her to you as Mother and I make you her son; I wish that she have for you all the affection, all the tenderness, and all the benevolence that a mother has for her son, and I also want you to bear her the respect and love, and that you render her the assistance and obedience that a son owes his mother." Some Doctors have believed that Jesus, by an effect of his omnipotence, then produced in Mary and in John physical bonds of motherho od an Marie Mother of Jesus, entrusted to the care of John at the foot of the cross. d filiation, which made them truly Mother and Son; this is how Saint Thomas of Villanova speaks of it, in an admirable sermon he gave on Saint John. But it is not necessary to have recourse to this miracle: it suffices to say that John was then penetrated with all the sentiments of a son toward Mary, and that Mary was also penetrated with all the sentiments of a mother toward John. The Evangelist adds that from that hour this beloved disciple took her into his home, and that he took her into his care: Accepti eum discipulus in sua.

The Fathers remark that this great Apostle represented in this encounter all the faithful, and that thus Mary was given to us as Mother, and that we were given to her as children; but John was the firstborn in this adoption; thus, although Mary is the Mother of all the faithful, she nevertheless regards, after Jesus Christ, the glorious Saint John as the first and the dearest of all her children; from this we must conclude that, if he was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," he was also the son whom Mary loved. We do not have words eloquent enough to express the excellence of the treasure that was given to him in the person of this Virgin of virgins: as Mary was worth more by herself than all other creatures together, and as Jesus loved her more than he loved all the angels and all men, it is certain that the gift he made to his disciple was above all gifts, and the greatest he could make to him after giving himself to him; and as in speaking of him to Nicodemus, he exclaimed with admiration: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son for its redemption and salvation"; likewise, in considering this inestimable benefit, we have reason to exclaim in holy astonishment: "Jesus Christ loved John to the point of giving him his Mother for his consolation and his happiness."

But this signal favor was accompanied by a very great martyrdom; for, what did our Apostle not suffer seeing his dear Master, his adorable Benefactor attached to the cross, and expiring in the midst of so many reproaches, torments, and ignominies; what sorrow for him to see all the torments of the Son fall back upon the holy Virgin who had been given to him as Mother? Let us not doubt that, on this occasion, he had more share in the passion of the Mother and the Son than all the other martyrs; that, according to the prediction of Our Lord, he drank all the bitterness of his chalice and endured a martyrdom more painful and more noble than those who suffered death by the torments of executioners. Love for the Son and for the Mother did in him what whips, scorpions, iron hooks, arrows, boiling oils, and burning beds did in the other victims of Jesus Christ.

The Savior of the world having expired, had his side pierced by a lance thrust by the cruelty of a soldier who wanted to test if he was dead. Then Saint John, notwithstanding his excessive pain, attentive to all that was happening on Calvary, saw blood and water issue from this holy wound. He considered this mystery with admiration; it was, in effect, the symbol of two of our Sacraments: and he is the only Evangelist who revealed it to the Church; upon which he makes this most authentic protestation: "And he who saw it has borne witness, and his testimony is true." It is also to be believed that he was at the foot of the cross when the body of the Savior was taken down, that he received it in his arms, that he placed it in those of the holy Virgin, that he washed it with his tears, that he kissed it with extraordinary devotion, and that he helped to place it in the sepulcher.

Since then, he was the first to give tangible signs of the love he bore Him. For, having learned from Mary Magdalene that He was no longer in the tomb, he ran there diligently with Saint Peter, and saint Pierre Apostle mentioned for the setting of the procession date. arrived first; and if he did not enter before the arrival of this prince of the Apostles, it was only out of humility and respect for his age and for the dignity to which he was designated. Furthermore, when Our Lord appeared to a small number of his disciples who were fishing on the Sea of Tiberias, John was the only one who recognized Him at first; upon which Saint Jerome says very well: *Solus virgo Virginem agnovit*: John, being the only one who was a virgin, was also the only one who, by a divine sympathy, recognized Jesus Christ the King of virgins. In this apparition, the Savior ate with them, He took bread and fish and distributed them to them; and, after the meal, He established Saint Peter as pastor of His lambs and His sheep; He predicted to him that he would die with arms outstretched, that is to say, that he would die on a cross for the confession of His name, and as He went away He said to him: "Follow me." As this Apostle followed Him, he noticed Saint John coming after him, and wanting to know what such a dear and precious disciple would become, he asked Our Lord what He intended to do with him; Jesus, to remove this anxiety, answered him: "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me." The other disciples, interpreting these words as referring to the final coming and as if Our Lord had not said them conditionally, but absolutely, inferred that John would never die: this opinion is still followed by some authors, who do not believe him to be effectively dead, but reserved to come with Enoch and Elijah to fight the Antichrist at the end of time. However, this interpretation of the disciples was not accepted by Saint John; and it seems that it was to exclude it and to prevent it from taking hold that he pointed out in his Gospel that Jesus Christ did not say: "This disciple will not die"; but only: "If I want him to remain until I come, you should not be concerned about it." We have nothing more on our blessed disciple in the text of the Gospel. In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke speaks of him everywhere with great honor and always names him immediately after Saint Peter. He assisted this first of the Apostles on three memorable occasions that we have described in his life. The first was the healing of a lame man at the gate of the temple, called the Beautiful Gate. This lame man asked both of them for alms, and they gave him as alms the use of his legs, which he had not had for the forty years he had been in the world. The second was when the priests and magistrates of the temple had them arrested to ask them for an account of such a great miracle and the zeal with which they preached the glory of Jesus Christ. They appeared with marvelous constancy before their tribunal, they told them that one could only be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, whom they had caused to be sacrificed; and, these priests having forbidden them to ever speak of this doctrine, they answered them with the same firmness: "Judge, if you please, whether we should rather defer to your command than to that of God." Finally, the third occasion was when the Samaritans, having believed the word of God and received baptism from the hands of Saint Philip, deacon, it was a question of conferring upon them the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of Confirmation, the administration of which is reserved to bishops. The Apostles, who had remained in Jerusalem, deferred the honor to Saint Peter and Saint John, and the laying on of their hands was so effective that the Holy Spirit did not only descend invisibly upon these new Christians, but also in a sensible manner, just as He had descended at Pentecost upon the disciples. Saint Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians, chap. II, says that having come to Jerusalem, he found there James, Peter, and John, who were like the pillars of the Church, and that they received him into their society for the preaching of the Gospel, recommending to him only that in preaching to the Gentiles he should take care to lead them to assist the poor of Judea.

We must now draw from the Ecclesiastical History and the Apocalypse of Saint John the remainder of his Acts until his death. Firstly, it is very certain that his primary care, along with that of the conversion of peoples, was to provide for the needs of the Blessed Virgin during all the time she lived, to keep her company, and to render to her all the duties that the quality of a child of such a mother, instituted by Jesus Christ himself a moment before his death and when he was shedding his blood for her love, could demand of him. This is what he did not only in Jerusalem and in Judea, but in Asia, and particularly in the city of Ephesus, w here t Éphèse Principal city of John's apostolate in Asia Minor. his adorable virgin retired for some time, when the nascent Church was dispersed by the persecution of Herod. The synodal Epistle that the General Council, held in this same city, wrote to the clergy of Constantinople, bears witness to this retreat. It is not possible to report here all the graces he received, through her means, during the time he remained with her, the lights she poured into his soul by her words, the ardors of divine love she ignited in his heart by her examples, and the favors she drew for him from heaven by her prayers; for, if she is so liberal and so beneficent toward those who invoke her and have recourse to her, even though they are only her servants, what will she not have done for an adopted child, of whom Jesus Christ her only son had established her as Mother? And if her mere presence produced such prodigious effects in those who had the honor of approaching her for a little time, as in Saint John the Baptist, in Saint Zechariah, and in Saint Elizabeth, what will she not have operated in him who lived with her, who was a witness to her actions and her steps, who heard her speak of our mysteries, who saw her pray and receive communion, and who often gave her communion himself and prayed with her? Of what splendors was his spirit not then enlightened, of what flames was his soul not set ablaze, and with what humility and what fervor did he not pass his life in such a holy company? These are secrets that one must rather admire than wish to represent by the weakness of our words.

In the division of the world that the Apostles made among themselves to undertake its conquest, Asia Minor fell to Saint John, and this was perhaps the reason for which he led Mary to Ephesus, which was one of its greatest cities. It is true that he also traveled through other parts of the Orient, among which one includes the country of the Parthians, because his first epistle formerly had for an inscription: To the Parthians. The Jesuits who, in these last centuries, have announced the name of Jesus Christ in the Indies, report that he penetrated to the extremities of the Levant, and that the Bassorians claim to have received the faith through his ministry. But it is certain that his longest stay was in Asia. It is held that he remained in Hieropolis, a city of the province of Phrygia, until the arrival of Saint Philip. The bishops of Ephesus, another city of this province, called themselves his successors and his disciples, and they relied on his authority not to celebrate Easter on the same day that the Roman Church celebrates it; Saint Jerome even asserts that he founded and governed all the churches there: *totas Asie fundavit rexitque Ecclesias*; but this does not prevent Saint Peter from having also preached there, and Saint Paul, around the year 55, from having established Saint Timothy as bishop of Ephesus. Indeed, we see in the Apocalypse that this beloved disciple of the Savior wrote to the bishops of the seven principal churches of this province, namely: to the bishops of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Sardis, and Laodicea, whom he calls angels, because of the care they were to have for the peoples that divine Providence had entrusted to them.

We do not repeat here what we said on May 6th regarding his martyrdom in Rome, where, having been taken by the order of the Emperor Domitian, he was whipped and plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil; nor of his exile on the island of Patmos, one of the Spora des, where he île de Pathmos Island of John's exile where he wrote the Apocalypse. wrote that admirable book, named *Apocalypse*, which, in the jud gment of S Apocalypse Prophetic book written by John on Patmos. aint Jerome, contains no fewer mysteries than words, and which represents under figures still sealed all the persecutions of the Church, until the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world. He also announced to the inhabitants of this island the truth of the Gospel and drew them to the faith of Jesus Christ. After the death of Domitian, Nerva, his successor, a very gentle prince, having annulled all his acts because of their excessive cruelty, and recalled from exile all those he had banished, our blessed Apostle had the freedom to return to Ephesus to resume the guidance of the Churches of Asia, which this persecution had interrupted. Metaphrastes says that before his departure the Christians of Patmos begged him to leave them in writing the doctrine of salvation that he had taught them, and that, to satisfy them, he composed his Gospel, which he dictated to Saint Proc horus, one of saint Prochore Disciple and secretary of Saint John. the first seven deacons who had followed him.

He adds that before undertaking this great work, he ordered a fast for all the faithful, which he observed himself with extreme rigor; that he then withdrew with his disciple Prochorus to a high mountain, where, standing like Samuel and with arms outstretched toward heaven like Moses, he entered into a very high contemplation of eternal truths; that being thus enraptured in God, terrifying flashes of lightning were seen, and furious claps of thunder were heard, and that after a great burst, a voice was heard saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; that finally, after these words which he had written down, he continued to dictat e his Go Évangile Fourth gospel, centered on the divinity of the Word. spel to Saint Prochorus, who had the honor of being his secretary for such an admirable work. Dorotheus of Tyre, Theophylact, and Nicephorus agree with Metaphrastes regarding the location of these wonders; but Saint Irenaeus, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Isidore, Saint Gregory of Tours, and most other authors, following Eusebius of Caesarea, say that they occurred in Asia, and that it was there that Saint John composed his Evangelical History, at the request of the bishops of the region, because of t he nasce Cérinthe A contemporary of John the Apostle who denied the divinity of Christ. nt heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion, who said that Jesus Christ was only a mere man. This was therefore around the year 98, under the empire of Nerva or Traj an, and under the saint Clément Ier Pope contemporary with the end of the life of John. Pontificate of Saint Clement I.

In this book, he focuses more on reporting the discourses of Our Lord than on describing his actions, and he dwells more on the first two years of his preaching, which the three Evangelists who had written before him had only touched upon in passing, than on the following ones. He inculcates therein mainly the doctrine of divine filiation and of his unity with his Father; and he does so in a manner so sublime that he has earned from the most ancient Fathers of the Church the name of Theologian par excellence and Eagle of the Evangelists: as, indeed, he is represented in Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse under the symbol of an eagle. From the very first page, he makes it sufficiently known that he had flown into the bosom of the Divinity to discover its deepest secrets. He speaks there of the eternal generation of the Word, of his immutable dwelling in God, and of his perfect consubstantiality with God, and thereby he destroys the heresies of Sabellius, Arius, and Acacius. He explains there the creation of the world by this Word, and how all things having had life in him as in their principle, they have received life in themselves through him. He announces there the mystery of the Incarnation, by saying that this Word, coeternal and consubstantial with the Father, was made flesh: which overturns the errors of Paul of Samosata, Nestorius, and Eutyches. He teaches there the mystery of justification, asserting that those who have received him have had the power to be made children of God by a generation that is not of the flesh and of man, but entirely divine. Finally, there is almost no Catholic truth of which he does not provide the principles and lay the foundations.

It is true that Saint Paul, raised to the third heaven, discovered secrets that are impenetrable to us; but these revelations were only for him; for he confesses that at the moment they were communicated to him, he was forbidden to publish them to others. But our divine Evangelist was instructed for the benefit of everyone, and these supernatural lights were put into his mind only to share them with the universal Church. Even the angels, according to Saint John Chrysostom in his first homily on this Gospel, learned things from it that they did not know, in accordance with what the Apostle says to the Ephesians, chapter III, that the manifold wisdom of God has been made known to the principalities and powers in heaven by the Church which is on earth. The pagan philosophers were in such great admiration of the depth and eminence of these first words: "In the beginning was the Word, etc.," that some inserted them entirely into their books, as a doctrine above all others. Saint Augustine even says that a Platonist wanted them to be written in letters of gold in the most prominent place of assemblies. One must see this holy doctor in his *Confessions*, book VII, chap. IX, and in book X of the *City of God*, chap. XXIX. Finally, the Church has such great veneration for the Gospel of Saint John that it has the first chapter recited every day at the end of Mass; and Maldonatus reports, in his commentary, that during the time of the fury of the Arians, Catholics always carried it on them to distinguish themselves from these heretics, just as one now carries a rosary to distinguish oneself from the Calvinists, and in order to have weapons continually in hand to fight them. Besides the Apocalypse and the Gospel, our Saint wrote three Epistles; the first, to the faithful in common, although it formerly bore the title, to the Parthians, as we have already said; the second, to a lady named Electa, illustrious for her piety and nobility. The third to Gaius, who was a very charitable Christian and a great host. One of his main views in these letters, besides the zeal he shows against the heretics who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, like Cerinthus and Ebion, or the truth of his flesh, like Basilides, is to lead everyone to charity toward their neighbor, this virtue being the surest mark of the love one has for God and of the profession of Christianity. He explains the precept of it which he calls old and new; he declares the advantages of it, which are to easily obtain from God all that one asks of him and to have a happy fellowship with him; he marks the qualities of it, and he says that it is sincere, true, and beneficent; that it is not content with words, but that it comes to effects. This is what he does mainly in his first Epistle. He shows, in the second, how careful one must be to flee the conversation of heretics; and he proves it by his example, for, although he did not have to fear that they would corrupt him, he did not fail to flee them and avoid meeting them; it is even said that having one day found Cerinthus and Ebion in the public baths where he was going to wash, according to the custom of that time, he withdrew immediately with his disciples, saying to them: "Let us get out of here, my children, for fear that the building might collapse on us, because of such bad company." One knows neither the place nor the time when these letters were written. It is likely that the Apostle was already very old when he composed them, since in the first he speaks to the faithful as to his little children, *filioli*, and that in the other two he calls himself *senior*, the old man.

The famous conversion of a young man, who had become a captain of thieves, is the most certain thing we have of what he did after his return. He had become fond of him before his exile, and, wishing to make him a good servant of God, he had placed him under the guidance of a bishop, whom he had strongly urged to watch over him, to give him a good education, and to cast into his heart the seeds of all Christian virtues. This prelate applied himself to it for some time; but, after having given him the first rudiments of Christianity, having baptized, confirmed, and prepared him for the sacrament of the Eucharist, he neglected him so much that, no longer seeing himself enlightened, he frequented bad company and became a libertine among libertines. From there, to have the means to satisfy his debaucheries, he joined thieves and made himself their captain. The memory of the holy instructions he had received and the remorse of his conscience, not yet entirely extinguished, held him back at first and prevented him from committing the greatest crimes; but finally, he stifled this remnant of good sentiments and abandoned himself to such strange disorders that he was the most fearsome of all the brigands. The Apostle, having gone to see the bishop to whom he had recommended him, asked for him back as a precious deposit he had entrusted to him. "I do not have him anymore," said the bishop, quite confused, heaving a great sigh. "I do not have him anymore, he is dead." — "He is dead," replied Saint John, "and in what manner did he die?" — "It is to God that he died," said the bishop, "since he preferred to join bandits to rob passersby on these mountains than to remain in the Church in restraint and modesty." — "To what a guardian," the holy Apostle replied to him, "had I entrusted my brother!... But let a horse be brought to me, let a guide be given to me!" Then, leaving the assembly, he departed at once.

When he had arrived on the mountain, he met the sentinels of the bandits, who seized him. "I come here," he said to them, "to speak to your leader, and I beg you to lead me to him, because I have an important matter to communicate to him." They had respect for his old age and for that majestic gravity that appeared on his face, and they led him to the one he asked for. The captain recognized him at once, and, unable to bear the sight and presence of such a holy man, whom he revered as his master, he immediately took flight; but the Saint ran after him, shouting with all his might: "Why, my child, do you flee from your father? What do you fear from an unarmed man? Have regard for my white hair, have pity on the flower of your youth, do not believe that there is no more salvation for you. Stop, my son, I beg you, stop. It is Jesus Christ himself who sent me to you." At these words, the young man stopped; he kept his eyes on the ground. Then he threw down his weapons, and he began to tremble and weep bitterly. John approached him; but he, embracing his knees, knew only how to pray to him with his groans. He was bathed in his tears as if by a second baptism; but he still kept his right hand hidden under his robe. Saint John, once again, encourages him, reassures him, swears to him that he will obtain his pardon from the Savior; in his turn, he begs him, and kneels at his feet. Then, taking hold of that hand, now purified, he kisses it tenderly. The young man was brought back into the assembly of the saints. John prayed with him. He fasted with him, doing penance together. He healed his soul by the word, as if by a sovereign charm, and he did not leave him until he had resurrected him and restored him to the Church.

Such traits had no analogue in profane antiquity. Saint John showed by this conduct that he had not only drawn the secrets of heaven from the bosom of his Master, when he rested there, but that he had drawn from it the fire of charity and mercy toward sinners. And how could he not have been filled with it, he who had seen Him expire on the tree of the cross for them? Thus, Saint Jerome reports that having become extremely old, and his weakness no longer allowing him to give long speeches to the faithful, when his disciples had brought him to the church in their arms, he would only say these words to them: Filioli, diligite alterutrum; "My little children, love one another." And as these same disciples, annoyed at always hearing the same thing, finally asked him why he repeated this lesson so often, he gave them, adds Saint Jerome, an answer worthy of John, that is to say, of the disciple whom Jesus loved: Quia præceptum Domini est, et in solum fiat, sufficit; "I do it because it is the commandment of the Lord, and if one keeps it well, nothing more is needed to be saved."

This is all that we have been able to find that is authentic about Saint John in Ecclesiastical History. It only remains for us to speak of his blessed passing. We have already said that some authors believed that he did not die, but that Our Lord had reserved him with Enoch and Elijah, to fight the Antichrist at the end of the world. This is the opinion of Saint Hippolytus, Bishop of Porto, in his Treatise on the Consummation of the World, but it is not tenable; for, besides the fact that Saint John himself rejects it in his Gospel, by these words: Et non dixit Jesus: non moritur; "And Jesus did not say that this disciple was not to die"; besides the fact that in his Apocalypse, when speaking of the battles against the Antichrist, he mentions only two witnesses, who will preach for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth, and who will finally be massacred by the beast, all of antiquity has not doubted his death, any more than that of the other Apostles. The Menologium of the Greeks marks it on September 26. Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, speaks of it clearly in his Epistle to Pope Victor; Tertullian in his Treatise on the Soul; Saint Chrysostom in the Homily on the Twelve Apostles; Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Isidore, Saint Gregory of Tours, Nicephorus Callistus, Metaphrastes, and an infinity of others. Pope Saint Celestine I, in the Epistle to the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus, also speaks of his relics, which were honored in that city. Finally, Cardinal Baronius, Godeau, Bishop of Vence, and all our most learned historians hold it to be indubitable.

It is not known, however, in what manner he died. Some have said that Trajan had him put to death through the violence of torments; but

this has no foundation. The Church believes that his death was natural and that, after having drunk the chalice of the Lord at the foot of the cross and when he was thrown in Rome into a cauldron of boiling oil, he expired peacefully in Ephesus on December 27. He nonet Éphèse Principal city of John's apostolate in Asia Minor. heless deserves the title and possesses the crown that the Martyrs receive, having suffered much more than they in seeing Jesus Christ on Calvary. He was a martyr of the martyrdom of Jesus Christ himself, and the instruments that tore and pierced the body of the Master tore and pierced the heart of the disciple. There are also several opinions regarding the years he lived. Saint Jerome says that he lived sixty-eight years after the Passion of Our Lord, from which it follows that he died in the year 101 or 102, under the Emperor Trajan; but it i s not certain w empereur Trajan Roman emperor mentioned for his rescript to Pliny the Younger. hat age he was when he was called to the apostolate. Baronius gives him only twenty-two years; others give him twenty-seven or thereabouts.

The church of Saint John Lateran possesses , in a beautiful gil Saint-Jean de Latran One of the first basilicas built by Constantine. ded silver urn, the chains with which Saint John was bound when he was brought from Ephesus to Rome. In the Saint Francis chapel, one sees the cup or goblet from which Saint John drank, on the order of Domitian, a deadly poison, but which, by a permission of God, did him no harm. Under the high altar, in the Confession, which was the prison where he was detained, is also exhibited the tunic, enclosed in a gilded silver casket, with which the Saint resurrected the ministers of the emperor, who had died suddenly for having tasted that same poison of which he had drunk with impunity. John the Deacon, in the Life of Saint Gregory the Great, observes particularly that, when it was unfolded in a time of drought, rain was obtained, just as it brought back fine weather when the rains were too abundant; finally, that the lamps before the altar where this precious relic had been placed sometimes lit themselves and burned without the oil being consumed. Saint Gregory of Tours says that it never rained in the place where he had dictated his Gospel, even though it was in the open.

All the Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical writers give him very great praise, which can be seen in their works and which is drawn from the admirable lights and extraordinary favors he received from heaven. It will suffice, to conclude this life, to remark that he encompassed all the distinctions of saints; we mean that he was a prophet, apostle, evangelist, doctor, martyr, and virgin. But, above all, he was the Disciple whom Jesus loved, the disciple most cherished by his Master, the disciple best instructed by his Master, the disciple most affectionate toward his Master: Hic est discipulus ille.

Saint John is represented accompanied by an eagle. A historian, if one may speak thus, of the eternal generation of the Word, and of the divine action of the Son of God outside of the Incarnation, he has been compared to the eagle that fixes its gaze upon the sun without blinking; because never had human language approached such heights of doctrine, nor rendered it in terms so brilliant with light. Sometimes a chalice is placed in his hand, from which a serpent emerges. It is probable that this attribute is drawn from an uncertain legend in which it is seen that the Apostle was condemned, in Ephesus, to drink poison which, moreover, did him no harm. Others think that this chalice represents the chalice of the Eucharist of which he spoke in such an admirable manner: the serpent, which was among the ancients the symbol of life, would signify the eternal life that one draws from the Blessed Sacrament.

This account is by Father Giry, revised and completed. — Cf. The History of the Apostle Saint John, by Abbé Bannard, honorary canon of Orléans.