In his Gospel, St. John recounts the vocation of the first apostles, including his own: "John (the Baptist) and two of his disciples were there again, and when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "This is the Lamb of God. The two disciples (Andrew and the young John) asked Jesus, "Rabbi, which means Master, where do you live? He answered them, "Come and see. They went and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour".
Andrew told his brother Simon (whom Jesus called Cephas, the first Pope), and John told his brother James, sons of Zebedee and Salome. They were fishermen from Galilee. St. John is mentioned in the Gospels, for example, when he asked Jesus at the Last Supper who was going to betray him, and for remaining on Calvary with the Lord on the Cross, with Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas and other women, when they all fled.
"Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved" (writes the evangelist), said in agony to his mother from the tree, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then he said to the disciple, 'Here is your mother'" (Jn. 19:25-27). There Mary's motherhood was established, notes the Church. In four lines, the Gospel of John quotes the word mother 5 times. He wrote the Apocalypse (Revelation), and with the Virgin Mary lived in Ephesus, from where he evangelized Asia Minor.
