27 December: St John the Divine

December 27 is the feast day of St John the Divine, Apostle and Evangelist, the "beloved disciple" of Jesus.

1. He was born in Galilee in about AD 6 and was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother James was also one of the Apostles.
2. Jesus referred to John and James as "Boanerges," meaning "sons of thunder." Although they were usually calm and gentle by nature, when really pushed they could display violent tempers, such as the time when they wanted to call down fire from heaven to punish the Samaritan towns that did not accept Jesus.
3. Saint John is the patron of love, loyalty, friendships, authors, booksellers, burn-victims, poison-victims, art-dealers, editors, publishers, scribes, examinations, scholars and theologians. Saint John's attributes are a book (his gospel), a serpent in a chalice (from when he was forced to drink poison), a cauldron (from when he was boiled in oil) and an eagle, symbolising the heights he rose to in his gospel.
4. John is known as the author of four books in the New Testament – his gospel, three epistles, and Revelation. However, there are theologians who dispute his authorship of two of the letters, believing them to be written by another John.
5. Saint John refers to himself in his gospel as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," or "the Beloved Disciple". None of the other gospels refer to him that way.
6. While most of the disciples went into hiding during the crucifixion, John was there. It is John who, from the cross, Jesus charged with looking after His mother.
7. What John did after that is somewhat uncertain. Tradition states that he went to Ephesus and was banished from there to Patmos, which seems likely since banishment was a common punishment for prophecy, and especially prophecies that the Roman authorities saw as a threat. It was on Patmos that he wrote the Book of Revelation.
8. It's believed that John was the only Apostle not to die a martyr. He lived to the age of about 92. This isn't to say that the Roman authorities didn't do their best to kill him. One legend says he was sentenced to death by being boiled in oil, but emerged from the cauldron unscathed. Another says he was ordered to drink poison as a test of his faith, and he survived that, too.
9. At the end of the 2nd century, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, claims that John’s tomb is at Ephesus, and that John was a priest and a teacher in the region. Two different sites in Ephesus claimed to be the site of his tomb until eventually, one was officially accepted as such and became a shrine. It is said that dust from St John's tomb has healing properties.
10. In art, John is often portrayed as androgynous or even feminine. It's said he became a disciple when he was a young man, which could explain why he is often portrayed without a beard. Some historians believe that the feminine portrayals of John, some even showing him with long hair and even small breasts, might have been so women would have a disciple they could relate to. There were also men in Medieval times who favoured a highly emotional style of worship, not seen as very masculine, so it may be that the artists portrayed John as a disciple they could relate to.