Monday, January 04, 2021

Who was the Oldest Apostle when he died? (Plus, when and how the other apostles died)

The oldest apostle of Jesus Christ at the time of his death was St. John the Apostle who is said to have died in the year 100 AD. He was born around 6AD and therefore he would have been 93 or 94 years old. This is a very old age even today, but back them all the more. So how did St. John live to such an old age?

St. John is famous among the apostles for not being martyred as all the others were. It wasn't for a lack of trying though! In the year 95, he was taken prisoner at Ephesus and sent to trial in Rome. He was sentenced to death and was put in boiling oil, however he miraculously survived. Apparently though he felt the pain. Because of the miracle, the emperor commuted his sentence to exile on the island of Patmos. This is where he died.

The 10 other apostles plus St. Matthias who replaced Judas were all martyred in the folllowing ways:

St. James the Greater was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa in the year 42 - the first apostle to be martyred.

St. Philip was crucified upside down in Persia in the year 62.

St. James the Lesser was martyred in the year 62 by being thrown from a building in Jerusalem and having his head bashed in with a club.

St. Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia while saying Mass in the year 65.

St. Matthias was killed in Asia Minor near the Caspian Sea in the year 65, either by crucifixion of by being hacked to death.

St. Andrew was crucified in an X shape after being scourged in the year 67.

St. Peter was crucified upside down near the Vatican by Nero in the year 67.

St. Jude (also known as Thaddeus) was clubbed to death in Persia in the year 67.

St. Simon the Zealot was crucified at Edessa in the year 67.

St. Bartholomew was skinned alive in Armenia in the year 72.

St. Thomas was stabbed to death in Mylapore, India in the year 74.

Finally, in the year 100, 26 years after the death of all the other apostles, St. John passed away. St. Robert Bellarmine, a doctor of the Church, indicates St. John was assumed into heaven body and soul which accounts for the fact that we do not have his relics.

I found much of this information here.

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