The son of the fishermen Zebedee and Salome, daughter of Joseph, the betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos. With his brother James, he followed Jesus. With Peter and James, he attended the Transfiguration of the Lord. When the other disciples left the crucified Lord, he stood under the cross with the Most Holy Theotokos, whom he guarded until her ascension. He later preached the Gospel in Asia Minor, most notably in Ephesus. The pagans bound him and sent him to Emperor Domitian in Rome. When neither the poison he drank nor the boiling oil they threw him into did him any harm, the emperor, considering him immortal, exiled him to the island of Patmos, where he wrote his Gospel and Revelation. Then he returned to Ephesus. He was over 100 years old when he died. His body was not found in the tomb.

Venerable Neil of Calabria.