John and his brother James the Great were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. they were summoned by Jesus as his disciples and called by him the "sons of thunder" because of their fiery temperaments. With St. Peter, they witnessed Jesus' transfiguration and agony at Gethsemane, and John is traditionally identified as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" a the Last Supper, the guardian of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the first of the apostles to see the risen Christ.

He later ministered with St. Peter in Jerusalem and Samaria, and last appears in the New Testament as an exile on the island of Patmos. According to later ecclesiastical tradition he was in Rome at the time of Emperor Diocltian and escaped alive when he was boiled in a cauldron of oil.

John probably spent his last years at Ephesus (now an archaeological site in Turkey) where he died at a great age. Many anecdotes are told about his ministry in the city, the legendary challenge to him by a high-priest of the Temple of Diana to drink from a poisoned cup as test of his Christian faith — he did so and was unharmed; his fear that the baths would collapse because a heretic was bathing there; and his followers' eventual boredom with his frequent exhortations that they should love one another.

John's patronage of writers stems from his traditional but unprovable role as the author of the Fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Book of Revelation.

Collect

Merciful Lord, cast your bright beams of light upon the Church: that, being enlightened by the teaching of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John, we may so walk in the light of your truth that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ your incarnate Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.