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Troparion in tone 2
Beloved apostle of Christ our God,
hasten to deliver a defenseless people.
He who allowed you to recline on His breast,
receives you as you bow before Him.
Implore Him, John the Theologian,
to disperse the persistent threat from the heathens,
entreating for us peace and great mercy.

Apostle John was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the elder. First a fisherman by trade, he became an Apostle and the beloved Disciple of Christ. Only he of all the Disciples followed Christ even to the Cross, and was entrusted with the care of our Savior’s Mother. After this, he preached throughout Asia Minor, especially in Ephesus. During the reign of Domitian, he was taken in bonds and tortured. Surviving the tortures, he was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Returning to Ephesus after the death of the tyrant, he wrote his Gospel (after the other Evangelists had already written theirs) and his three Epistles. In all, he lived some ninety-five years and fell asleep in the Lord during the reign of Trajan in the year 100. He was called Theologian because he loftily expounded in his Gospel the theology of the inexpressible and eternal birth of the Son and Word of God the Father.