John is known in Scripture as being Jesus’ beloved disciple. Jesus called John along with his brother, James, as they were mending their nets near the Sea of Galilee. He called the two brothers “sons of thunder.”

John was the youngest of all the disciples, and it is believed he outlived the others. He was the only one who is known to not have suffered martyrdom—he died when he was in his 90s.

John, represented here from a stained glass window from the chapel in St. Edward’s Hall, was present at most of the important moments of Jesus’ life—the transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus was arrested, for example. In the story of the Last Supper, John leans on the breast of Jesus to ask who would betray him. Of all the disciples, he remained with Mary at the foot of the cross, and before he died, Jesus handed over care for his mother to John.

John eventually settled in Ephesus among the Christian community there. His biography indicates that he was arrested, tried in Rome, and banished to the island of Patmos, where he received visions and dreams that he recorded in the Book of Revelation. (Read more about current scholarship on the author of Revelation in the last paragraph of this introduction to the book.)

After the emperor’s death, John returned to Ephesus, where the Church’s tradition holds that he wrote his Gospel. John’s Gospel is entirely different from those of Mark, Luke, and Matthew—it presents Jesus with great authority, radiating divinity throughout. For his soaring theology, John is represented by the symbol of an eagle (depicted here in stained glass from the chapel in Morrissey Hall). He also wrote three letters that are part of our New Testament.

It is said that when John was too old to preach to the Christians at Ephesus, he was brought before the congregation and would simply say, “My little children, love one another.” When asked why he always repeated these words, he would reply, “Because it is the word of the Lord, and if you keep it, you do enough.”

Several pieces St. John’s relics are kept in the reliquary of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus, including a piece of his tomb. Croatian artist Ivan Mestrovic sculpted a story from John’s Gospel of Jesus talking to a Samaritan Woman at the ancient site of Jacob’s Well and portrays John and Luke on either side of the main sculpture, which stands in front of O’Shaughnessy Hall on South Quad.

St. John the Evangelist, whose Gospel urges us to love one another because God is love—pray for us!