The word apostle comes from the Greek Απόστολος, and means “sent”. The apostles were those chosen by Jesus Christ our Lord for the spread of His word; to preach of His redemptive work, His life, His death and His resurrection.
These propagators of the Gospel (“good news” in Greek) and disciples of Christ share the characteristics of having known Jesus personally and of having been witnesses of the risen Jesus Christ.
In addition, each of them had the gift of working miracles, which indicated their divine origin.
In total there were 12 chosen by Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel, as the following Bible verses from Mark 3:13-19 show us.
“Then He went up into the mountain, and called to Him those whom He desired; and they came to Him.
And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,
and that they had authority to heal diseases and to cast out demons:
Simon, whom he surnamed Peter;
James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he surnamed Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite,
and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. And they came home.”
Let us look at these ministers of God one by one:
The names and biographies of Jesus’ 12 Apostles
Apostle Simon Peter
(Bethsaida, late first century B.C.-Rome, c. 67 d. C.)
Son of Jonah or John and renamed by Jesus as Peter, he was one of the most prominent disciples of Jesus of Nazareth and considered the first pope.
Simon Peter was a fisherman from the Sea of Galilee, who left his home in Capernaum to join the disciples of Jesus in the initial moments of his ministry. Simon was joined by other fishermen from the area such as his brother Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. These 4 men formed the original core of the 12 apostles.
Several passages in the Bible show St. Peter as an impetuous, sincere person with an overwhelming personality. His greatest weakness was to deny up to 3 times knowing Jesus Christ the night He was arrested, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Nazarene.
The last stage of his life would be spent in Rome, where he would have exercised a long apostolate that could justify the future papal see. He would eventually be arrested by Nero during his persecution of Christians and executed by crucifixion.
Apostle James the Greater
(Bethsaida, 5 B.C.-Jerusalem, 44 A.D.)
Son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of John, this apostle was known as James the Greater to differentiate him from James the Less, another of the 12 apostles. In the Bible he is usually referred to as Jacob.
Together with John and Simon Peter he witnessed key moments in the ministry of Christ. He attended the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration of Jesus and was in the Garden of Olives during the prayer before the passion and death of Jesus Christ. He was also part of the group that witnessed the last miracle: His resurrected appearance on the shores of Lake Tiberias.
After the death of Jesus Christ, James the Greater was assigned to evangelize the northwestern territory of Hispania, known as Gallaecia. He then returned to Jerusalem to accompany the Virgin Mary on her deathbed, along with the other great disciples of Jesus. There he was tortured and beheaded by Herod Agrippa I. His body would be taken back to Gallaecia, where he would be buried in the place where the Cathedral of Santiago stands today.
St. Andrew the Apostle
(Bethsaida, beginning of the 1st century-Patras, end of the 1st century)
Andrew had the honor of being the first disciple of Christ, along with John. The call of Jesus Christ changed his life forever. It was Andrew who took Simon Peter to meet Jesus, telling him that they had found the Savior of the world.
St. Andrew also brought to Jesus the boy who had the five loaves, so that the Nazarene could work the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. This apostle lived three years with Jesus Christ, witnessing most of his miracles and hearing most of his sermons.
On the day of Pentecost, St. Andrew, along with the Virgin Mary and the other Apostles, received the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire. From that moment on, he dedicated himself to preach the Gospel with courage, working various miracles.
St. Andrew was martyred and crucified in the city of Patras, under the empire of Nero.
Apostle John
(Bethsaida, 6 A.D.-Ephesus, 101 A.D.)
Brother of James the Greater, son of Zebedee and Salome, and the youngest of all the apostles. Also known as John, the beloved disciple, since he appears six times in the Gospel as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.
Like brother James the Greater, John witnessed many of the Lord’s miracles and teachings. Thus, together with James the Greater and Simon Peter, he formed an inner circle of disciples who were present at key moments of Jesus’ earthly ministry: the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration of Jesus, the final prophecy of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Olives, the beginning of the great atoning work of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, etc.
Jesus Christ attributed to John and James the Greater the nickname of Boanerges or “sons of thunder”, probably because of their irascible character.
St. Philip the Apostle
(Bethsaida, late 1st century B.C. or early 1st century A.D.-Hierapolis, 80 A.D.)
Philip was the fifth apostle summoned, and one of those present when John the Baptist first pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
One day after Christ called Peter, he met Philip and called him to the apostolate, telling him to “follow me”. Philip obeyed and soon after brought Nathanael or Bartholomew.
Although the Bible does not contain much information about this apostle, we know that it was Philip who brought the loaves and fishes to Jesus so that He could work the miracle. According to some gospel accounts we can also know that Philip was a naive, shy and judicious man.
Scholars place his death in Hierapolis, in present-day Turkey, where he would have been preaching and where he would have died at an advanced age.
St. Bartholomew the Apostle
(Cana, 1st century B.C.-Syria, 1st century A.D.)
The name Bartholomew comes from the Aramaic “son of Ptolemy”. Bartholomew is always linked to Philip and is also known as Nathanael.
According to the Gospel of John, Nathanael, better known as “the rebel,” was one of the disciples to whom Jesus appeared at the Sea of Tiberias after his resurrection.
The apostle Bartholomew witnessed the ascension of Jesus.
Although it is not possible to specify with certainty the field of his apostolate, many believe that he was able to exercise his mission in India, Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt and Armenia; according to others, he did so in the city of Phrygia and at the court of Polymius, king of the Bosporus, Pontus and Cilicia.
As for his martyrdom and according to the tradition generally followed by iconography, he was flayed alive. The possible scenario of his death is placed in Albanopolis or Urbanopolis, city of Armenia. Later his body was transferred to Neferguerd (Miyafarkin), and around 507, by Emperor Anastasius I, to Daras in Mesopotamia. Later, in 983, Emperor Otto III transferred his remains to Rome, where they were deposited in the church of San Adalberto, on the island of the Tiber, which from then on received the name of San Bartolomeo in Insula.
St. Thomas the Apostle
(Galilee, 1st century A.D.-Mylapore, 72 A.D.)
Thomas, or Jude Thomas Didymus, was one of Jesus’ twelve apostles. The name Thomas means “twin” in Aramaic, and Didymus has the same meaning in Greek.
St. Thomas the Apostle, a Jew and fisherman by trade, was blessed to follow Christ, who made him an apostle in the year 31.
St. Thomas is known for his unbelief after the Lord’s death. Jesus appeared to the disciples on the day of the resurrection to convince them that he had really risen. Thomas was absent and refused to believe in the resurrection of Jesus: “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger in the nail holes and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.
Eight days later, when Jesus was with the disciples, he turned to Thomas and said, “Put your finger here and see my hands: give me your hand and lay it in my side. And do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas fell to his knees and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus replied, “You have believed, Thomas, because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have believed without having seen.”
Thomas was not very educated, but he compensated for this lack with a passionate love for Jesus Christ. According to tradition, it fell to him to evangelize Syria and then the city of Edessa, from where he moved to found the first Christian community of Babylon, in Mesopotamia. There he remained for seven years before embarking for India, traveling throughout the country until he reached China, driven always and only by love for the Gospel.
Back in India, he died a martyr’s death, pierced by a spear in present-day Chennai, on July 3, 72.
St. Matthew the Apostle
(Palestine, 1st century A.D.-Ethiopia, 74 A.D.)
Matthew the Evangelist, also known as Matthew Levi, Levi of Alphaeus or Matthew the Apostle, was one of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus of Nazareth.
The Spanish name Mateo comes from the Hebrew MattanYah, which means “gift of God”.
The authorship of the first of the so-called synoptic Gospels (those of Matthew, Mark and Luke) is attributed to Matthew.
Matthew resided in Capernaum, a city of great commercial importance, and worked as a tax collector for Herod Antipas. It was in his tax office that Jesus Christ told him to “follow me”.
Although the New Testament does not give many details about the person of Matthew, tradition points to him as an evangelizer of Judea and a missionary in Ethiopia and Persia. He lived for many years in Antioch, where he wrote his valuable Gospel.
As for his death, there is a disparity of criteria. While some sources mention that he was martyred, others affirm that he died a natural death.
Apostle James the Lesser
(unknown, 1st century A.D.-Jerusalem, 62 A.D.)
James the Less or James, son of Alphaeus, received this name to distinguish him from another apostle, James the Greater. James the Less was the son of Clopas or Alphaeus and Mary of Clopas, and brother of Judas Thaddaeus and Joseph. In ecclesiastical Latin he was called Sanctus Iacobus, that is, Saint Jacob.
Christian tradition has always identified it as “the Lord’s brother“According to the historian Flavius Josephus, the term “brother” covered in that place and at that time a wide number of close relatives, and did not necessarily imply “blood brother”, i.e., son of the same parents.
That same historian, Flavius Josephus, illustrates the death of Jesus’ brother at the hands of the High Priest Annas ben Annas or Ananus (Ananias) in the year 62.
Tradition holds that James the Less was crucified at Ostrakine, in Lower Egypt, where he was preaching the Gospel.
Apostle Simon the Canaanite
(Cana, 50 B.C.-Pella, 70 A.D.)
Simon the Canaanite or Zealot was a native of Galilee and one of the disciples of Jesus Christ who became part of the group of the Twelve. The words Canaanite and Zealot derive from Aramaic and both mean the same thing: “jealous”.
The Zealots, as Simon would have been, were members of a religious and political faction considered to be the most radical and fundamentalist wing of first century Judaism.
No one knows for sure where the Canaanite would have exercised his ministry. Some traditions say that he established Christianity in Egypt, together with Mark and in Syria accompanied by Philip. Others may have evangelized North Africa, Asia Minor and Spain. It is also said that he may have gone with Judas Thaddeus to Mesopotamia, Syria and Persia.
As for his death, according to the Christian chronicler Hegesippus, Simon was martyred at the time of Emperor Trajan, when he was about 120 years old. Versions on its execution differ. Some traditions point to the cross and less reliable ones to the bassoon in Armenia. According to Catholic tradition, Simon was martyred by being split in half with a saw alive.
The place where he was buried is unknown.
Apostle St. Jude Thaddeus
(Cana, 1 A.D.-Suamir or Edessa, between 60 and 70 A.D.)
Judas Thaddeus appears last in the list of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, but it is not known when or how he became one of the disciples.
“Judas” is a Hebrew word meaning: “praise be to God”, and Thaddaeus means: “courageous to proclaim his faith.”
The Apostle Jude Thaddaeus was probably the brother of James the Less.
After the Last Supper, when Christ promised that he would manifest himself to those who would listen to him, Judas Thaddaeus asked him why he did not manifest himself to all. Christ replied that he and his Father would visit all who loved him: “We will come to him and make our abode in him” (John 14:22-23).
Although we know nothing about the life of St. Jude Thaddaeus after the Ascension of the Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is certain that St. Jude Thaddaeus is one of the most popular saints because of his numerous heavenly favors. that he gets the devotees who pray to him with faith, especially in terms of getting a job or a house.
According to Western tradition, Judas Thaddeus met in Mesopotamia with St. Simon and both preached for several years in Persia, where they were martyred.
Apostle St. Jude Iscariot
(Kerioth, ?-Jerusalem 27-33 A.D.)
Judas Iscariot was one of the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth. He followed his master during his preaching in Judea and Galilee and, according to the canonical Gospelswas the traitor apostle who revealed to the members of the Sanhedrin the place where they could capture their Master without his followers interfering, as Jesus himself had announced during the Last Supper.
According to all the canonical gospels, Judas led the guards who arrested Jesus to the place where they found him and kissed his cheek and told them who he was. For his betrayal he was rewarded with thirty pieces of silver, but soon after he repented of his actions. Iscariot tried to return the coins to the priests who had given them to him, and when they would not accept them back, he threw them into the temple. Then, in despair at the magnitude of his denunciation, he committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree.
Characteristics of each one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles
