Veneration and the Feasts

The Orthodox Church venerates John the Theologian with two principal feasts: his repose (“falling asleep”) on September 26, and the commemoration of the “manna” miracle at his tomb on May 8. He bears among the saints a cluster of honorific titles — “the Theologian,” “the Beloved,” “the Virgin Apostle,” “the Son of Thunder” — and a fixed place in the Church’s iconography and hymnography. This file sets out the feasts, titles, iconography, and hymns by which the Church keeps his memory.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)

The Two Feasts

The Orthodox calendar honors John the Theologian principally on two dates:

September 26 — The Repose (Dormition / Koimēsis) of St. John the Theologian. This is the chief feast, commemorating the apostle’s “falling asleep” at Ephesus in great old age (see The Repose at Ephesus). It is a major commemoration in the fixed calendar, often celebrated with vigil, and it falls fittingly near the close of the liturgical year (which begins September 1).

May 8 — The Commemoration of the Holy “Manna.” This spring feast commemorates the tradition of the fine dust or “manna” that was said to rise from John’s tomb at Ephesus with healing power (see The Repose at Ephesus). It is widely kept in the Orthodox world, especially in the Greek tradition, and is a day of particular devotion to the apostle.

[Disputed: the dates are given here according to the Church's calendar; communities on the Julian ("Old") calendar observe September 26 and May 8 on dates that fall thirteen days later on the civil (Gregorian) calendar. The Julian/Revised-Julian calendar difference, not the feast itself, accounts for any divergence in observed civil date.] John is also commemorated, with the other apostles, on the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles (June 30), and his place among the inner circle is recalled at the Transfiguration (August 6).

The Titles of John

The Church has given John a remarkable wealth of honorific titles, each marking an aspect of his vocation:

  • The Theologian (ho Theologos) — the title proper to him among the Evangelists, for the height of his vision of the eternal Word and the love of God; shared in all Orthodox history with only Gregory of Nazianzus and Symeon the New Theologian (see The Theologian Among the Three).
  • The Beloved Disciple — “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 21:7, 20), the name by which the Fourth Gospel identifies him (see The Beloved Disciple).
  • The Evangelist — author of the Fourth Gospel, one of the four Evangelists, symbolized by the eagle (Revelation 4:7; Irenaeus, AH 3.11.8).
  • The Virgin Apostle — the tradition that John remained unmarried and in virginity, fitting for the disciple to whom the ever-virgin Theotokos was entrusted (John 19:27) and the seer who beheld the virgins who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4).
  • The Son of Thunder (Boanerges) — the name Christ gave the sons of Zebedee (Mark 3:17), recalled in the hymnography as a figure of the thunder of his theology.

Iconography

John’s iconography is among the richest of the apostles. He appears in several distinct types. In the Crucifixion he stands at Christ’s left, head bowed in grief, hand to cheek, at the moment of the entrustment “Behold your mother” (John 19:26–27; see Behold Your Mother). In the Deisis — the great intercessory composition at the heart of the Orthodox iconostasis and of the Last Judgment — John stands at Christ’s left hand, balancing the Theotokos at His right, the two foremost intercessors for the world. As Evangelist, he is depicted writing his Gospel, often on Patmos, with his disciple Prochorus beside him and the eagle as his symbol; in the Patmos icon he turns his head, listening, to receive the divine word “In the beginning was the Word.” In the repose icon he reclines in his tomb. And he appears, an old man with a high forehead and white beard, among the company of the apostles in countless festal scenes. The eagle, gazing into the sun, is his enduring emblem, figuring the soaring height of his contemplation of God (see The Theologian Among the Three).

Hymnography

The Church’s hymns for John gather all these themes. The apolytikion (troparion) of the feast addresses him as “Beloved Apostle of Christ our God” and entreats him to “beseech the merciful God, that He may grant to our souls forgiveness of sins.” The hymnography dwells repeatedly on the breast of the Lord on which he reclined — the source, in the Church’s poetic imagination, of his theology: he “drew from the very breast of wisdom” and so “thundered forth” the words “In the beginning was the Word.” The kontakion and canon honor him as evangelist, virgin, theologian, and beloved, joining his three roles — Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse — into the single figure of the apostle of love. The hymns also celebrate the wonder of his repose and the “manna” of his tomb (for the May 8 feast), and they call him, with the Theotokos, the chief of intercessors. Through this hymnography, sung on his feasts and woven into the daily cycle, the figure of John the Theologian — the disciple of love who reclined on the Lord’s breast and spoke the highest words of God — remains a living presence in Orthodox worship.

John in the Liturgical Life

Beyond his feasts, John pervades the Church’s worship through his writings. The Prologue of his Gospel is the Gospel of the Paschal Liturgy, the summit of the year (see Reception and Legacy); his Gospel is read continuously through the Paschal season from Pascha to Pentecost; his “I am the resurrection and the life” is proclaimed at every funeral; his account of the Bridegroom and the bridal chamber colors the services of Holy Week. Thus John is venerated not only on two days of the calendar but daily, wherever his Gospel is read and his theology sung — a veneration fitting for the disciple whom Jesus loved and the Theologian who gave the Church its highest words about God.

See Also

References

  • The Gospel according to John 13:23; 19:26–27; 21:7, 20 (the Beloved Disciple); Mark 3:17 (Boanerges); Revelation 4:7; 14:4.
  • The Festal Menaion and the Menaion for September and May (the services of September 26 and May 8). Trans. Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber, 1969.
  • The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church (September 26; May 8; June 30).
  • Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies 3.11.8 (the eagle as John’s symbol). Trans. ANF Vol. 1.
  • Ouspensky, Leonid, and Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982 (the iconography of John and the Deisis).