Decem-27-acem

Feast of St. John the Apostle & Evangelist, also called the Divine. He is the human author of the Gospel of St. John, of the Epistles, & of the Apocalypse of St. John. He is also the only one of the Apostles, not to die a Martyr, although he was boiled in boiling oil, in the persecution of Emperor Domitianus, which ordeal he miraculously survived, & died of old age as a prisoner on the island of Patmos.

«Of his zeal and love combined we have examples in Eusebius, who tells, on the authority of St. Irenaeus, that St. John once fled out of a bath on hearing that the heretic Cerinthus was in it, lest, as he asserted, the roof should fall in, and crush the heretic. On the other hand, he showed the love that was in him. He commended a young man in whom he was interested to a bishop, and bade him keep his trust well. Some years after he learned that the young man had become a robber. St. John, though very old, pursued him among the mountain fastnesses, and by his tenderness recovered him. In his old age, when unable to do more, he was carried into the assembly of the Church at Ephesus, & his sole exhortation was, "Little children, love one another!" The date of his death cannot be fixed with anything like precision, but it is certain that he lived to a very advanced age. He is represented holding a chalice from which issues a dragon, as he is supposed to have been given poison, which was, however, unable to harm him. Also his symbol, as an Evangelist, is an eagle.» — From The Lives of the Saints by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., published, 1914, Edinburgh.