Saint John
The Apostle, Evangelist and Prophet
Feast day – December 27
Saint John, brother of Saint James the Greater, the Apostle
of Spain, is the beloved disciple. He was privileged, with his brother
and Saint Peter, to behold the Saviour raise up a dead child to life, then saw
Him transfigured on the mountaintop; he alone reposed his head on His breast at
the Last Supper. After the crucifixion it is he who, with Saint Peter, hastened
to the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection. Standing beside Mary at
the Cross, he had heard his Master confide that Blessed Mother to him to be
henceforth his Mother also. He took his precious treasure for refuge to Ephesus
when the persecution of the Jerusalem Christians became too intense; and from
there he went out to evangelize Asia Minor, of which he became the first
Archbishop. He was later exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the
Apocalypse, but afterwards returned to Ephesus.
Compared with an eagle by his flights of elevated contemplation,
Saint John is the supreme Doctor of the Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Endowed
with an astounding memory, he was able even in his later years, to reproduce
the discourses of Christ in such a way as to make the reader experience their
power and impact on their audiences as if present to hear them. He is the
author of five books of the New Testament, his Gospel, three Epistles, and the
last canonical prophecy, the Apocalypse or Revelation of Saint John —
all of which were composed after the ruin of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
In his extreme old age he continued to visit the churches of
Asia, and Saint Jerome relates that when age and weakness grew upon him so that
he was no longer able to preach to the people, he would be carried to the
assembly of the faithful by his disciples, with great difficulty; and every
time said to his flock only these words: “My dear children, love one another.”
Saint John died in peace at Ephesus in the third year of
Trajan, that is, the hundredth of the Christian era, or the sixty-sixth from
the crucifixion of Christ, Saint John then being about ninety-four years old,
according to Saint Epiphanus.
Sources for this article were taken from: http://magnificat.ca
Prayer
O Glorious Saint John, you were so
loved by Jesus that you merited to rest your head upon his breast, and to be
left in his place as a son to Mary. Obtain for us an ardent love for Jesus and
Mary. Let me be united with them now on earth and forever after in heaven.
Prayer for the Enlightenment of Saint
John
Merciful Lord, we beseech Thee to cast
Thy bright beams of light upon Thy Church, that it being enlightened by the
doctrine of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John may so walk in the
light of Thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting
life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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