Feast: May 6th
Around the year 95 AD, St. John remained as the last surviving Apostle, overseeing the churches in Asia, (likely Asia Minor). St. John was in the city of Ephesus and was at once sent to Rome. There, Emperor Domitian condemned John to immersion in boiling oil.
The holy apostle stood fearless and joyful, prepared to accept the crown of martyrdom and reunite with his Divine master eternally. However, Our Lord had different plans, yet still crowned his desire for martyrdom. Just as God had saved the three children from the fiery furnace, He also spared St. John. The boiling oil miraculously transformed into a refreshing bath, and St. John emerged even more invigorated than before.
The Emperor observed this miraculous event but remained hard of heart. This time, he chose to exile St. John to the small island of Patmos. There, St. John would reside until the death of Domitian, after which he would return to Ephesus.
The feast is named “John at the Latin Gate” because it commemorates the grand event that occurred near the gate of Rome known as the ‘Porta Latina’.
Reflection, (Taken from Butler’s Lives Of The Saints)
St. John suffered above the other Saints a martyrdom of love, being a martyr, and more than a martyr, at the foot of the cross of his divine Master. All his sufferings were by love and compassion imprinted in his soul, and thus shared by him. O singular happiness, to have stood under the cross of Christ! O extraordinary privilege, to have suffered martyrdom in the person of Jesus, and been eye-witness of all He did or endured! If nature revolt within us against suffering, let us call to mind those words of the divine Master: “Thou knowest not now wherefore; but thou shalt know hereafter.”
Notes:
It is at the Island of Patmos where St John would receive the revelations and write the Apocalypse.
The Pope’s Cathedral in Rome is dedicated to this event St John Lateran, which was founded in 324, the oldest public church in Rome.
The only martyrdom of any Apostle documented in the Scriptures was that of St James the Greater, brother of St John. All other martyrdoms were written down by the early Christians in other documents, for example Tertullian in his work, Prescription against Heretics, Chapter 36,
“the Apostle John was first plunged, unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile!”
This event fulfilled the prophecy of Our Lord in Matthew 20:23, “He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.”
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Reference:
The Feast of St John at the Latin Gate
Lives Of The Saints – May 6. – ST. JOHN BEFORE THE LATIN GATE
Church Father: Prescription against Heretics – Tertullian (155AD – 220AD) (Chapter 36)
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