John
The "beloved disciple," was brother to James the Great. The churches of
Smyrna, Pergamos, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Thyatira, were
founded by him. From Ephesus he was ordered to be sent to Rome, where it
is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by
miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of
Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Nerva, the successor of
Domitian, recalled him. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent
death.