John the Evangelist

John was one of the four evangelists who recorded the life of Christ in the New Testament of the Bible. In the final book, the Book of Revelation, John describes his vision of the end of time.
Additional information about him comes from legends. John the Evangelist is always included in renderings of Christ’s family. His mother, Mary Salome, was a half-sister of Jesus’ mother Mary. Both John and his brother James the Greater became disciples of Christ. In art John is always depicted as his favourite follower. He leans his head against Christ’s breast at the Last Supper, accompanies Mary to the Carrying of the Cross and supports her during the Crucifixion. He is with Mary at the Last Judgement, when she intercedes with Christ in behalf of the damned. John’s engagement to Mary Magdalene is sometimes represented as the Marriage at Cana. On his own, John is portrayed as an exile on the island of Patmos, where he had his apocalyptic vision. As a Christian martyr he drank from a poisoned chalice and was immersed in a cauldron of boiling oil.