“Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 20:26-27

Often referred to as the beloved disciple, John was the son of Zebedee and brother of St. James the Great. He was the only one among the twelve disciples who did forsake Jesus the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross when the Savior made him the guardian of His Mother.

It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22).

For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. 

John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom Jesus gave the exquisite honor of caring for his mother, as John stood beneath the cross. “Woman, behold your son…. Behold, your mother” (John 19:26- 27).

Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” While it is difficult to know exactly what this meant, a clue is given in two incidents.

On Easter day, Mary Magdalene “ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him’” (John 20:2). John recalls, perhaps with a smile, that he and Peter ran side by side, but then “the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first” (John 20:4b). He did not enter, but waited for Peter and let him go in first. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

After the Assumption of Mary, John went to Ephesus, according to Church tradition. 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, three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation is also attributed to him. Brought to Rome, tradition relates that he was by order of Emperor Domitian cast into a cauldron of boiling oil but came forth unhurt, and was banished to the island of Patmos for a year.

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. The "beloved disciple" died at Ephesus about the year 100. A stately church was erected over his tomb. It was afterwards converted into a non-Christian worship place.

John is the author of the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius states the First Epistle of John, and the Gospel of John are agreed upon as John's.

with inputs from Catholic Online, CNA

Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Nicarete of Constantinople
2. Saint Theodorus of Apamea
3. Saint Theophanes of Nicaea
4. Saint Fabiola of Rome

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