When the apostle was ninety-nine years old, the Lord Christ appeared
to him with the other apostles whom he had taken from this life, and said, “John,
come to me, it is time that you should feast with your brothers at my banquet.”
John arose and went toward the savior, but he said to him, “On Sunday, the day
of my resurrection, you will come to me.” And after those words, the Lord
returned to heaven.
The apostle rejoiced greatly in that promise and, rising early at
dawn, he came to the church, and from cockcrow until midmorning taught the
people God’s law, sang Mass for them, and said that the savior had invited him
to heaven on that day. He then ordered his grave to be dug opposite the altar,
and the soil to be removed; then he went alive and whole into his grave, and
with our outstretched hands cried to God, “Lord Christ, I thank you that you
have invited me to your banquet; you know that I have desired you with all my heart.
I have often prayed that I might go to you, but you said that I should wait, so
that I might win more people to you. You have preserved my body against every
uncleanness, and you have always enlightened my soul, and have nowhere forsaken
me. You have put the word of your truth in my mouth, and I have written down
the teaching which I heard from your mouth, and the wonders I saw your work.
Now, Lord, I commit you to those children which your Church, virgin and mother,
has gained for you through water and the Holy Spirit. Receive me among my
brothers with whom you came and invited me. Open the gate of life to me, that
the princes of darkness might not find me. You are Christ, Son of that living God,
who saved the world at your Father’s request, and sent us the Holy Spirit. We
praise and thank you for your manifold benefits throughout the eternal world.
Amen.”
After this prayer, heavenly light appeared above the apostle, inside
the grave, shining so brightly for an hour that no one’s sight could look upon
the beams of light; and with that light, he gave his spirit to the Lord, who
had invited him to his kingdom. He departed from this present life just as free
from the pain of death as he has been exempt from bodily defilement. Later his
grave was found filled with manna—manna was the name of the heavenly food which
fed the people of Israel for forty years in the wilderness. Now this food was
found in John’s grave, and nothing else; and that food is increasing in it to
the present day. Many miracles have been revealed there, and the sick healed
and released from all dangers through the apostle’s intercession. The Lord
Christ grants this to him, to whom is honor and glory with the Father and the
Holy Spirit, forever without end. Amen. (Aelfric, “Assumption of John
the Evangelist,” in The Old English Catholic Homilies—The First Series
[trans. Roy M. Liuzza; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 86; Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 2024], 91, 93, 95)
