but not all. Yet even the unwritten teaching has come down to us, and is called tradition.
All the apostles, with one exception, sealed with their blood [1] the Gospel which they announced to the world. In the year of our Lord 67, Paul returned to Rome, where he and Peter gloriously suffered martyrdom under Nero[2]. Paul, being a Roman citizen, was beheaded; Peter died on a cross, with his head downwards[3]. James the Greater suffered under Herod, about the year 42 of the Christian era.
John, the beloved disciple, who had been thrown into a caldron of boiling oil and been miraculously preserved, was the only one who died a natural death, which event took place about the year 100.
Mary, the Mother of our Lord, died at Jerusalem in the year 47, and was, according to ancient tradition, assumed into heaven with her body as well as her soul. The Church historian, Nicephorus, thus describes her Assumption: “When the time came for Mary to die, the apostles who were scattered in different lands came to Jerusalem. But her Divine Son came to the Blessed Virgin at her death, and took her soul to heaven. Her holy body was laid in a sepulchre near Gethsemane (Fig. 98, p. 802), amid the songs of angels and apostles. But when, on the third day, the grave was opened, they found that the sacred body was no longer there; only her grave-clothes were left, which emitted an indescribably
- ↑ Sealed with their blood. Andrew, Philip, Simon Zelotes, and Matthias were crucified; Bartholomew, who preached the Gospel in Armenia and India, was flayed alive, and then beheaded. Thomas was killed with a lance, and Matthew with a sword. Jude was martyred in Phenicia. James the Less was bishop of the Church in Jerusalem for thirty years, and was held in high veneration on account of his severe and holy life. He was cast down from a pinnacle of the Temple by command of the Scribes and Pharisees, and, life not being quite extinct, he was despatched with a club.
- ↑ Nero. Emperor of Rome. He was a cruel tyrant, who caused a multitude of Christians to be put to death with every refinement of cruelty. St. Peter and St. Paul were among the last victims of his barbarity.
- ↑ Head downwards. At his own humble request, for he did not think himself worthy to die by the same death as his Divine Master. The church of St. Peter’s at Rome, the largest church in the world, is built over the tomb of St. Peter, and the bones of the great prince of the apostles lie under the high altar (Fig. 99, p. 803)
