A Cup of Suffering

 All the Apostles were martyred, except John.  He died in exile on the island of Patmos.  This is history.  This fact, made me often wonder what Jesus meant when he said to John and his brother, James (sons of Zebedee), You will indeed drink from my cup...". Matt 20: 23.  Is living in exile a martyrdom?  Maybe.

However, today I was reading about churches in Rome and came across the mention of a small church near the Basilica of St. John of the Latin Gate.  This church commemorates St. John being boiled in oil!  How's that for drinking a cup of suffering? Matt 20:23 

From the Breviary of St Pius V: “In ferventis olei dolium missus beatus Joannes Apostolus, divina se protegente gratia, illaesus exivit, alleluia. - Cast into a pot of boiling oil, the blessed Apostle John, protected by divine grace, came out unharmed, alleluia.” From its first appearance in the late 8th-century, it is known as the feast of St John “before the Latin Gate”, even though the walls of which the Latin Gate are a part were built 200 years after St John’s time. 

Just the fact that this is not well known, has me wondering about its veracity.  The Eastern Catholic Churches seem to have a lot of traditions and legends which seem implausible to me.  However, that's me.

What about you?

Next door to the Basilica of St. John of the Latin Gate, is the small oratory known as “Saint John in oleo”, said to be on the very spot where the pot of oil was set up; it is attributed to Donatello Bramante, the original architect in charge of rebuilding St Peter’s Basilica in the early 16th-century.