3rd Day In The Octave Of Christmas

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

St. John is the virgin Apostle, crowned with the halo of those who knew how to conquer their flesh; for this reason, he became "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Thanks to his angelic purity, he imbibed that wholesome wisdom of which the Epistle of the Mass speaks and which has given to him the halo of the Doctors. Finally he received the halo of the Martyrs, since he barely escaped a violent death. It is to St. John, who wrote a Gospel, three Epistles and the Apocalypse, that we owe the most beautiful pages on the Divinity of the Word made flesh, and it is for this reason that the virgin Apostle is symbolised by the eagle. His name is mentioned with the other Apostles' names in the Canon of the Mass. St. John the Evangelist departed this life at Ephesus.
(The Roman Missal, 1962)