John, St (lived 1st century AD)

The ruins of St John's Basilica at Selçuk, near Ephesus in Turkey. It was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD in the belief that it was the site of the tomb of St John.

St John the Evangelist, illustrated in the Lindisfarne Gospels. One of the apostles (the 12 disciples) of Jesus, John is thought to have written the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation, both part of the New Testament of the Bible. John and his brother James, who grew up on the shores of Lake Galilee, were among the first disciples to be called by Jesus.

New Testament apostle. Traditionally, he wrote the fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles (when he was bishop of Ephesus), and the Book of Revelation (while exiled to the Greek island of Patmos). His emblem is an eagle; his feast day is 27 December.

The differences between the fourth Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels (the similar accounts of Jesus' life by Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are a cause of theological debate.

St John is identified with the unnamed ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’. Son of Zebedee, born in Judaea, he and his brother James were Galilean fishermen. Jesus entrusted his mother to John at the Crucifixion, where John is often shown dressed in red, with curly hair. Another of his symbols is a chalice with a little snake in it.