Saint John the Theologian
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APOSTLE OF LOVE
No eloquence of human wisdom can express,
nor can the mind of carnal man comprehend what thou hast told us about
the eternal being of the one God in Three Persons without beginning.
For like Moses on the mountain amid thunder and flashes of lightning,
thou didst receive from God the mystery and secret of theology,
and thou didst proclaim to the world: He Who in the beginning was the Word,
ever inseparably united to the Father, having the light of life is the cause of all existing creation,
and the darkness can never swallow him.
Illumined with the radiance of the divine life of truth,
we honour thee as an intimate friend of the beginningless Trinity,
and we sing praises to thee as the most perfect theologian:
Rejoice, eagle that didst fly to God’s fiery throne itself!
Rejoice, trumpet that didst proclaim to the world the pre-eternal and beginningless God!
Rejoice, thou who didst reveal to us God’s heavenly mysteries!
Rejoice, thou who didst declare to us Christ’s humanity and divinity!
Rejoice, thou who didst teach us love for God and our neighbour!
Rejoice, thou who didst promise in return for this love, God’s indwelling presence!
Rejoice, Apostle John, devoted and beloved friend of Christ and Theologian! [1]
The God-Man Jesus Christ is completely perfect and unchanging. Perfect love and perfect freedom. He became incarnate for our sake, to give us His perfect love, that is, for Him, to give Himself to us. How much we have Him depends mostly on us. With the freedom with which God has endowed us, we decide how much we will respond to His love and how much we will accept Him, that is, how much room we will leave for Him in us.
Saint John the Apostle was the beloved disciple of Christ, the one whom Jesus “loved the most”[2]. But not that Christ loved him more than others, because He loves everyone equally, but rather, St. John loved Him more than everyone. Love is about openness. God is always completely open to everyone and He gives Himself to us all equally, but it is obvious that the openness of the holy apostle John to God was greater than that of others, and therefore Christ revealed the greatest secrets to him.
Son of thunder
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came as a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. (John 1, 6–7)
The seer, the holy apostle and evangelist John, called the Theologian, was the son of Zebedee and Salome. Zebedee was a fisherman, wealthy and with great honour in the Jewish community, and Salome was the daughter of Joseph, the betrothed of the Most-Holy Theotokos. She was one of those women who most intimately served the Lord Jesus Christ and who, after His burial, early in the morning, went to the tomb to anoint His body with myrrh, which is why they are called myrrh-bearing women.
Saint John, together with his older relative Andrew, believed in the preaching of Saint John the Herald (Forerunner) from a young age and both became his disciples. That is why God chose them and they were among the first to be called to follow Him. Called by the Lord Jesus Christ, John immediately left his father and the fishing nets, and went with his brother Jacob to follow Christ. From the Lord Christ he was called “son of thunder” (Mark 3, 17), because his theology was to be heard throughout the world like thunder and fill the whole earth.
He followed his good Teacher, learning the wisdom that proceeded from His mouth, and the Lord Christ loved him greatly because of his perfect non-maleficence and exquisite virginal chastity. The Saviour’s divine love for him was so exceptional, that in the Holy Gospel it is said about him that he is the disciple “whom Jesus loved”. And among the twelve apostles, the Lord singled him out as the most outstanding and he was one of His three closest disciples, to whom the Lord revealed His divine secrets many times.
John, as a beloved disciple, was inseparable from Christ wherever they went. And the extent to which God loved John can be seen from the fact that at the Last Supper John leaned his head on Jesus’ chest. So, when the Lord announced at the Last Supper that one of the disciples would betray Him, and when the disciples looked at one another perplexed about whom He spoke, then the disciple whom Jesus loved leaned his head on His chest and asked Him: “‘Who Is it, Lord?” Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. ”And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.” (John 13, 21-26).
The Lord loved John so much that only he had the freedom to lay his head on His chest and boldly asked Him about the secret of betrayal. But John also had a greater love for his Teacher than that of the other apostles: at the time of the Saviour’s voluntary suffering, all the disciples left their Shepherd and ran away, and only he was unswervingly present at the time of Christ’s sufferings, sympathizing with Him with all his heart, crying and wailing with the Most-Pure Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, together with Her, he did not even depart from the suffering Son of God upon the very Cross and death.
Therefore, under the Cross, Saint John was honoured by the Lord to be adopted by the Most-Pure Virgin Mary. Because, while hanging on the Cross and seeing His Mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His Mother: “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple: “Behold your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (John, 19, 25-27). And he had regarded her as his mother, and served her honourably until her glorious Assumption. On the day of Her Assumption, when the honourable and holy body of the Mother of God was being carried for burial, Saint John carried an unusually shining royal sceptre in front of Her bier, which was brought to the Most-Pure Virgin by Archangel Gabriel, informing Her of Her passage from earth to heaven.
The faith that overcomes the world
For whoever is born of God overcomes the world;
And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.
(1 John; 5, 4)
After the Assumption of the Most-Holy Virgin Mary, Saint John together with his disciple Prochorus went to Asia Minor, in order to preach the word of God there, because after casting lots, that area belonged to him. As they were going further, Saint John grieved, because he foresaw troubles on the sea, which he foretold to his disciple Prochorus. And when they boarded a ship in Joppa and the ship set sail, at five o’clock in the afternoon a strong storm arose and the ship broke up during the night, and all who were on the ship were swimming in the waves of the sea, clinging to flotsam from the ship. The next day at noon, the sea washed them ashore, near Seleucia [3], and only Saint John remained in the sea. After weeping a lot for Saint John, Prochorus left for Asia alone. On the fortieth day of the journey, he arrived at a place by the sea called Marmara, and there he stopped to rest. Once, when he was watching the sea and mourning for Saint John, the waves of the sea splashed the shore with a great noise and Saint John was washed up on to the shore alive. Prochorus ran to see who had been washed up on to shore and he saw Saint John, he lifted him from the ground, and after embracing each other, they wept and thanked God for everything. Thus Saint John spent forty days and nights in the sea, and he remained alive by God’s grace. When they entered Marmara, they asked for bread and water, and after recovering, they departed for Ephesus.
When they entered Ephesus, they were met by a woman named Romana, famous for her wickedness as far as Rome, who kept a public bath in the city. She hired Saints John and Prochorus to work in the bathroom and tortured them terribly. With her skill, she lured them to work for her: she assigned John to stoke the fire, and Prochorous to fetch water, for as long as they were alive. Here, they spent a long time in such trouble. But in that bathroom there was a demon, who every year drowned one of the visitors – a young man or a girl. When that bathroom was being built, on the advice of the demon, a live young man and a live girl were buried in its foundations. Since then, such murders had started to happen. At that time it happened that a child named Domnus, son of the city leader Dioscorides, came into the bathroom. When Domnus was washing himself in the bathroom, the demon attacked him and drowned him. This event shook Romana hard, and she cried a lot for Domnus. The news of the death of Domnus quickly spread throughout Ephesus, and when Dioscorides heard of the death of his son, his heart burst with pain and he died. However, Romana prayed a lot to Artemis to resurrect Domnus, and she was even tearing her body while praying, but nothing helped. At that time, Saint John asked Prochorus what had happened. When she noticed them talking, Romana grabbed Saint John and began to beat him severely, insulting him and blaming him for Domnus’s death. At the end she said to him: “If you do not resurrect Domnus, I will separate your soul from your body.” Then Saint John prayed to God and he resurrected the child. Then, Saint John also resurrected Dioscorides. Thus Dioscorides, Domnus, and Romana believed in Christ and were baptized. Fear gripped all the people and they marvelled at what had happened. Saint John expelled the evil spirit from the bathroom, and then they stayed in Dioscorides’ home, fortifying the newly enlightened in the faith and teaching them to live virtuously.
Once, in Ephesus, the festival of Artemis was celebrated very solemnly: the people in white clothes rejoiced near her temple, in which stood the idol of that goddess. Then Saint John ascended close to that idol and thunderously denounced the blindness of the people who do not know God, for not knowing whom they worship, and for worshiping a demon instead of God. The people got terribly angry and started throwing stones at the holy apostle, but not a single stone fell on him, but all the stones returned and hit those who threw them. Saint John raised his hands to heaven, prayed to God and immediately a terrible heat arose, from which two hundred people fell dead. Once they had barely recovered from fear, the rest begged the holy apostle to have mercy on them, because they were overcome with trembling and horror. Saint John prayed to God and all the dead were resurrected, and all fell before Saint John and believed in Christ and were baptised.
At that time, the Roman emperor Domitian began a great persecution of Christians, and the holy apostle John was slandered before him. The Exarch (governor) of Assisi caught the holy apostle and sent him chained to Rome to Caesar, where he was first beaten for confessing Christ, and then given to drink a cup of deadly poison. When, according to Christ’s words: “And if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them” (Mark 16, 18), the poison did not harm him, then they threw him into a cauldron full of boiling oil, but the holy apostle, even from there, came out unharmed. And the people exclaimed: “Great is the Christian God!” Caesar, not daring to torture Saint John anymore, because he considered him immortal, sentenced him to exile on the island of Patmos, as the Lord told Saint John in his dream: “You have to suffer a lot, and you will be exiled to an island that needs you very much.”
On the island of Patmos
One night, before midnight, while they were sailing to the island of Patmos, a great storm arose on the sea and everyone began to cry out in despair, as the ship began to break up. Then they cried out to Saint John, begging him to help them and to pray to God to save them from destruction. He ordered them to be silent, began to pray and the storm immediately stopped and a great silence followed. A soldier on the ship fell ill with a terrible heart disease and was dying, but the holy apostle healed him. The ship ran out of water, and many, exhausted by thirst, were dying. Saint John said to Prochorus: “Fill the vessels with sea water.” And, when the vessels were filled, the holy apostle said: “In the name of Jesus Christ, draw water and drink.” When they drew, they saw that the water was sweet, and after drinking, they gasped. When they saw such miracles, Saint John’s travel companions were baptised and wanted to let Saint John go free, to go wherever he wanted. But he advised them to take him to the island of Patmos.
The apostle spent a long time there, continuing his preaching and performing many miracles. With the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, he performed many miracles, healed the sick, cast out demons and destroyed many pagan temples with prayer, and converted all the inhabitants of the island, illuminating them with the Light of the Gospel.
In the same city there was also a famous temple of the idol Bacchus, whom the idol-worshipers called the “father of freedom”. Gathering there during the feast in his honour with eating and drinking, men and women made merry, and after getting drunk, committed great iniquities in honour of their god. When he came there during the festival, Saint John refuted them for such a shameless celebration, but the priests, who were there in great number, seized the apostle and beat him, then dragged him out and bound him and threw him out, and they themselves returned again to their deed of abomination. Saint John prayed to God not to go through such iniquity, and the idol temple immediately collapsed to the ground and killed all the priests, and the rest of the people, being terrified, untied the holy apostle and begged him not to execute them too.
Emperor Domitian was killed at that time. After him, Nerva, who was a very good man, came to the Roman throne, and he set free all those who were in captivity. Then the holy apostle John was released and wanted to return to Ephesus, because he had already converted almost all the people of Patmos to Christ. But when the Christians learned of his intention, they begged him not to leave them. Since the holy apostle was determined to return to Ephesus, then they asked him to leave them at least the Gospel as a memorial of his teaching, which he had written there.
A perfect theologian
By God’s providence, after saying goodbye and ordering everyone to fast, he took with him his disciple Prochorus and went out of the city to a distant high mountain, where he spent three days in prayer. After the third day, strong thunder and lightning appeared, and the whole mountain shook, and Prochorus fell to the ground in fear. After turning to him, Saint John lifted him up, placed him on his right side and said: “Write what you will hear from my mouth.” And, after raising his eyes to heaven, he prayed again, and after the prayer he began to speak: “In the beginning was the Word…”, and the rest. The disciple carefully wrote down everything he heard from Saint John’s mouth, and thus the Holy Gospel was written. After they came down from the mountain, the apostle ordered Prochorus to copy it again. The holy apostle agreed to leave the copy to the Christians of Patmos, according to their request, and he kept the original with himself.
Saint John wrote the Revelation on the same island. According to the Holy Tradition, once, the apostle John, together with his disciple, withdrew from the city to the desert cave, and there he spent the first ten days together with Prochorus, and the other ten days alone. During the last ten days he did not eat anything, but only prayed to God to reveal to him what he should do. And he heard a voice from heaven: “John, John!” John answered: “What do you command, Lord?” And he heard: “Endure another ten days without food and great things will be revealed to you.” Saint John spent another ten days without food. And then a wonderful miracle happened: angels of God came to him and told him many unspeakable secrets. And when Prochorus returned to him, he sent him for ink and paper, and then for two days he spoke to Prochorus about the revelation he had, and he (Prochorus) wrote it down.
Before his departure from the island of Patmos, Saint John visited all the surrounding towns and villages, strengthening the brothers in the faith. Once he happened to be in a village where there lived a certain pagan-priest named Eucharis, who had a blind son. This pagan-priest had long wanted to see Saint John. When he heard that Saint John had come to their village, he rushed to him, begging him to come to his home and heal his son. And Saint John, seeing that he would win human souls, went to the pagan-priest’s house and said to his blind son: “In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, see!” And he immediately begun to see. When he saw that, Eucharis believed in Christ and was baptised together with his son.
And in all the cities of that island, Saint John put the holy churches in order, appointing bishops and presbyters for them; and having sufficiently instructed the inhabitants, he bade farewell to them all, and began his trip to Ephesus. The believers followed him with great weeping and wailing, not wanting to be deprived of such a beacon, which enlightened their whole land with his teaching, but the holy apostle sat on the ship and after wishing everyone peace, sailed on his way. When he arrived in Ephesus, the believers met him with inexpressible joy, exclaiming and saying: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” And he was welcomed with honour. Staying there, he did not cease to toil, always teaching people and guiding them to the path of salvation.
Teacher of love and repentance
For me there is no greater joy than
to hear that my children walk in truth.
(3 John. 1, 4)
It is important not to be keep silent about what Clement of Alexandria says about the holy apostle John[4]. When the apostle was touring the cities of Asia, he saw a well-intentioned young man in one city, so he instructed him in the faith. But intending to depart from there in order to preach the Gospel in other places, he entrusted this young man before all people to the bishop of that city, so the bishop may teach him all virtues. The bishop took the young man and taught him the Holy Scriptures, but he did not work with him as much as he should, nor did he give him the edification that young people need, but left him to his own will. Soon after, the young man began to live a bad life, he began to get drunk and steal. Then he befriended the robbers, who took him to the deserts and mountains, made him their leader and committed robberies on the roads.
After some time, on his way back, the holy apostle John came back to that city, and when he heard about this young man who had become corrupt and became a robber, he said to the bishop: “Give back to me the treasure that I entrusted to you for safekeeping, as in faithful hands. Give me back that young man, whom I entrusted to you before all people in order to teach him in the fear of God.” The bishop answered in tears: “That young man failed, he died in his soul, and with his body he commits robberies on the roads.” And St. John said to the bishop: “Is this how one keeps the soul of one’s brother?” Give me a horse and a companion so that I may go and seek the one that you killed.’
When Saint John came to the robbers, he asked them to take him to their leader. When the young man saw Saint John, he was ashamed so he jumped to run away into the desert. But Saint John forgetting his old age ran after him, shouting: “My son, return to your father and do not despair because of your fall, and I will take your sins upon myself.” Stop and wait for me, because God has sent me to you.” The young man stopped, and with trembling and shame fell at the feet of the holy apostle, not daring to look him in the face. And the holy apostle, after embracing him with parental love, kissed him, then took him and led him to the city with joy, because he had found the lost sheep. And he taught him a lot, teaching him on repentance, and the young man worked hard and pleased God with his repentance. After receiving forgiveness of his sins, the young man presented himself to the Lord (reposed) in peace. After that, the holy apostle returned again to Ephesus and lived in the house of Domnus, and converted a huge number of people to Christ and performed countless miracles.
How great a love this apostle of Christ had for people can be seen from the following occurrence. In one of the cities that Saint John visited, there was a rich widow named Prokliania. She had a son named Sosipater, and she, under the influence of the devil, fell in love with her son and tried in every possible way to force him to her iniquity. But the son ran away from her and came to the place where Saint John was teaching the people at that time and was being nourished by the apostolic teachings. The Holy Spirit revealed to Saint John what had happened to Sosipater, he took him aside and advised him to respect his mother, only not to listen to her in the lawless act and not to tell anyone about it, but to cover the sin of his mother. Sosipater did not want to return home to his mother, but Prokliania found him on the fourth day, grabbed him by his clothes and forcibly dragged him home.
Having heard the shouting, the governor, who had recently come to that city, appeared and asked the reason why the woman was dragging the young man in that manner. Hiding her sinful intention, the mother slandered her son that he allegedly wanted to fall in love with her. On hearing this, the governor believed the lies and condemned the innocent Sosipater to be imprisoned and sewn up in a leather sack full of deadly snakes, and thus thrown into the sea. When he learned about this, Saint John came to the governor, rebuking him for the unjust sentence, because he did not investigate the matter properly, but condemned the innocent young man to death. And Prokliania slandered Saint John also and said: “This impostor taught my son such evil.” When he heard that, the governor ordered that Saint John be sewn up in the same sack, together with Sosipatar, and to throw them into the sea.
But the holy apostle prayed to the Lord and suddenly the earth shook, and the governor’s hand withered, with which he had signed the judgment against the holy apostle; however, both of Prokliania’s hands withered and her eyes twisted. When the judge saw this, he was terribly frightened and all present fell prostrate with fear. And the judge begged Saint John to have mercy on him and heal his withered hand. After the holy apostle had sufficiently taught him about the righteous judgment and faith in Christ, he healed him and baptised him in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus the innocent Sosipater was saved from death, and the judge knew the true God.
Prokliania fled in fear to her home, carrying with her God’s punishment. But the Apostle took Sosipater and went to her home. Sosipatar did not want to go to his mother, but Saint John taught him to have no evil intent and assured him that he would not hear anything lawless from his mother again, because she had become chaste. Truly this is what happened to her. So, when Saint John with Sosipater entered her home, Prokliania immediately fell at the apostle’s feet, confessing with tears and expressing remorse for her sins. After healing her from the diseases and teaching her faith and chastity, the apostle baptised her with her entire household. And so, after she became chaste, Prokliania spent her days in great repentance.
Flight to the fiery throne of God
Beloved, we are now children of God! But it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
We only know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him,
for we will see Him as He is.
(1 John. 3, 2)
Saint John the Apostle spent the last years of his life in ascetic struggles: he ate only bread and water, did not cut his hair, and dressed in clothes made of a simple cloth. Being of an old age he had no strength to preach the word of God even in the vicinity of Ephesus. He taught only the bishops of the Church and encouraged them tirelessly to teach the people the words of the Gospel, and especially to remember and preach the first and main commandment of the Gospel – the commandment of love. Blessed Hieronymus says: “When the holy apostle was so weak that the disciples carried him to church, and he did not have the strength to speak long lessons, then he reduced his sermons to the fact that he constantly repeated this instruction: ‘Children, love one another!’ And when the disciples once asked him why he kept repeating this to them, he answered: ‘It is the Lord’s commandment, and if you keep it, that is sufficient.'” At the end of his life, the holy apostle was loved by the entire Christian world. At that time he was the only apostle – an eyewitness of the Lord, because all the other apostles had already passed away. Therefore many longed to see him and at least touch his clothes.
When St. John was more than a hundred years old, he went out of the house of Domnus with seven of his disciples, and when he came to a certain place, he ordered them to sit down. It was morning and after he went a short distance from his disciples, he prayed to God. Then his disciples, according to his wish, dug a cross-shaped grave for him, and he commanded Prochorus to go to Jerusalem and stay there until his death. After teaching the disciples and kissing them, the holy apostle said: “Take earth, which is my mother, and cover me with it.” And the disciples kissed him and covered him to the knees; and after they had kissed him again, they covered him up to his throat and put a veil over his face; and after still kissing him, they completely covered him with a great cry. When the brothers in the city heard about it, they came and dug up the grave, but they found nothing, and they wept greatly, and after they prayed, they returned to the city.
Oh most glorious and all-praised apostle and Evangelist,
devoted friend of Christ, beloved John!
By thine powerful intercession with thy most gracious and all-powerful Teacher and our Master and Lord,
implore for us all temporal and eternal blessings and a Christian end to our life,
that with thee in the tabernacles of the righteous and with the angelic choirs,
we may chant to the one God in three Persons: Alleluia! [5]
Father Gavril Galev
abbot of the monastery “St. Kliment Ohridski”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
09 / 10 / 2021
[1] Excerpt from the Akathist of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian.
[2] See: John 21, 20.
[3] Coastal city in Syria.
[4] Clement of Alexandria – a famous Christian teacher from the first centuries of Christianity. He died around 217.
[5] Excerpt from the Akathist of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian.
