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Image 1 of 1: Saint John the Evangelist, Artus Wolffort

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St. John the Evangelist

Apostle

John is not just the eagle of theology. He is the disciple who stayed close to Jesus, cared for Mary, taught the Church, fought error, and kept coming back to love.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Butler sourceButler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), December 27, St John the Evangelist, Apostle, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 620-623.

Emblems of Saints (1860)Frederick Charles Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints, second edition, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London, 1860, p. 266, “Patrons of Arts, Trades, and Professions.”

Emblems of Saints (1860)Frederick Charles Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints, second edition, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London, 1860, p. 267, “Patrons of Arts, Trades, and Professions.”

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), December 27, St John the Evangelist, Apostle, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 620-623.

John's life is gathered first from the New Testament: the son of Zebedee called with his brother from the nets, the beloved disciple at the Last Supper, the apostle who stayed by the Cross and received Our Lady into his care, the runner to the empty tomb, and the companion of Peter in the first days of the Church. The later and more universal tradition then places John at Ephesus and Patmos, linking him with the Apocalypse, the Fourth Gospel, and the epistles that return so often to truth and charity.

Several old stories also show John's character in age: fleeing the baths when Cerinthus was within, riding out to reclaim the young robber who had gone bad, and in the end repeating to the faithful, "My little children, love one another."

Historical note

This life uses St. John the Evangelist as the great universal life of the date.

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