St. John, the son of Zebedee, and the 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 Apostles who did not forsake Jesus in the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross and it was there that the Lord, from the cross, made him the guardian of His Mother ("Woman, behold your son. Behold, your mother."). cf John 19:26-27.
John spent most of his later life in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia Minor. He wrote the fourth Gospel, and three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation is also attributed to him. Brought to Rome, tradition relates that, at the order of the Emperor Dometian, he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil but came out unhurt and was banished to the island of Pathmos for a year. He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles, and died at the age of 99, traditionally in Ephesus about the year 100.
Witness to St. John in the Scriptures:
The Scriptures attest that John was originally a fishermen and fished with his father in the Lake of Genesareth. He was first a disciple of John the Baptist and later one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus.
John held a prominent position in the Apostolic body. He is frequently mentioned with his brother, James. Jesus referred to the pair collectively as the "sons of thunder." John survived James by more than half a century after James became the first apostle to die a martyr's death. Peter, James and John were the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus' daughter,[Mk. 5:37] of the Transfiguration[Mt. 17:1] and of the Agony in Gethsemane.[Mt 26:37] John and his brother wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan town, but were rebuked by Jesus. [Lk 9:51-6] Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make the preparation for the final Passover meal (the Last Supper).[Lk 22:8] At the Last Supper, his place may have been next to Jesus on whose chest he leaned if he is indeed the "disciple whom Jesus loved." However, this can not be concluded with certainty.[Jn 13:23-25] According to the general interpretation, John was also that "other disciple" who with Peter followed Jesus after the arrest into the palace of the high-priest.[Jn 18:15] John alone remained near Jesus at the foot of the cross on Calvary with Jesus’ mother, Mary, and the pious women and took Mary into his care as the last legacy of Jesus.[Jn 19:25-27]
Russian Orthodox icon of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, 18th century (Iconostasis of Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery, Karelia, Russia).
After Jesus’ Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, John, together with Peter, took a prominent part in the founding and guidance of the Church. He is with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple.[Ac 3:1 et seq.] With Peter he is also thrown into prison.[Acts 4:3] He is also with Peter visiting the newly converted in Samaria.[Acts 8:14]
There is no positive information in the Bible (or elsewhere) concerning the duration of this activity in Judea. Apparently, together with the other Apostles, John remained some 12 years in this first field of labor, until the persecution of Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles through the various provinces of the Roman Empire. [cf. Ac 12:1-17] It does not appear improbable that John then went for the first time into Asia Minor. In any case a messianic community was already in existence at Ephesus before Paul's first labors there. Such a journey by John in Asia in this first period was neither long nor uninterrupted. He returned with the other disciples to Jerusalem for the Apostolic Council (about AD 51). Paul, in opposing his enemies in Galatia, recalls that John explicitly along with Peter and James the Just were referred to as "pillars of the church" and refers to the recognition that his Apostolic preaching of a gospel free from Jewish Law received from these three, the most prominent men of the messianic community at Jerusalem.
Of the other New Testament writings, it is only from the three Letters of John and the Book of Revelation that we can learn anything else about John. From them we can suppose that John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of Jesus (cf. especially 1 Jn 1:1-5; 4:14), that he had lived for a long time in Asia Minor, was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions existing in the various messianic communities there, and that he had a position of authority recognized by all messianic communities as leader of this part of the church.
Extrabiblical traditions
Byzantine illumination depicting John dictating to his disciple, Prochorus (c. 1100).
Catholic tradition states that after the Assumption, John went to Ephesus and from there wrote the three epistles traditionally attributed to him. John was allegedly banished by the Roman authorities to the Greek island of Patmos, where some believe that he wrote the Book of Revelation. According to Tertullian (in The Prescription of Heretics) John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it. It is said that all in the entire Colosseum audience were converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle. This event would have occurred during the reign of Domitian, a Roman emperor who was known for his persecution of Christians in the late 1st century.
When John was aged, he trained Polycarp who later became Bishop of Smyrna. This was important because Polycarp was able to carry John's message to future generations. Polycarp taught Irenaeus, and passed on to him stories about John. In Against Heresies, Irenaeus relates how Polycarp told a story of how he heard John speak of his experience with the Risen Christ - and important witness to the Resurrection.
It is traditionally believed that John survived his contemporary apostles and lived to an extreme old age, dying of natural causes at Ephesus in about AD 100. John's traditional tomb is thought to be located at Selçuk, a small town in the vicinity of Ephesus.
In art, John as the presumed author of the Gospel is often depicted with an eagle, which symbolizes the height he rose to in the first chapter of his gospel. In Orthodox icons, he is often depicted looking up into heaven and dictating his Gospel (or the Book of Revelation) to his disciple, traditionally named Prochorus. He normally holds a cup (referring to his presence at the Last Supper) with a serpent coming out of it (this is attributed to a story where he was told to drink a cup of poison which, after blessing it, he did and survived unharmed).
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