A fisherman and brother of Peter. Both came from the town of Bethsaida. John’s Gospel tells us that he was Jesus’ first disciple and that he encouraged his brother to come to Jesus. Early Church tradition holds that he was put to death on an X-shaped cross.

He and his brother, John, were both fishermen. They must have had a fiery temperament because Jesus nicknamed them “sons of thunder.”

He was the source of the Fourth Gospel. He had a privileged place at the Last Supper. Jesus entrusted his Mother to him while he hung on the cross.

Jesus asked him where they could purchase bread before he performed the miracle of the loaves. At the Last Supper, he asked Jesus to show the apostles the Father, to which Jesus replied, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

This Apostle was probably the same as the Nathanael in John’s Gospel. When hearing from his friend Philip that Jesus was the Messiah, Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46). When Jesus met him for the first time he told him where he was sitting when he said his unkind words.

He was a tax collector by profession, a job that pious Jews loathed because it meant cooperation with the Romans. Some scholars believe that the New Testament’s Gospel used him as one of its sources.

John’s Gospel calls him “the Twin.” He eagerly professed faith in Jesus, saying that he would gladly go to Jerusalem to die with Jesus. However, when told of the Lord’s Resurrection, he said he would not believe until he saw the Risen Lord for himself.

Mark’s Gospel calls him _____ the Younger, perhaps to distinguish him from Zebedee’s son. Not much is known of this particular Apostle. He is probably not the so-called “brother of the Lord” who took over the leadership of the Christians in Jerusalem after Peter. This apostle was stoned to death in 62.

We don’t know much about this Apostle. He belonged to a group of revolutionaries who worked to overthrow Roman rule in Palestine through violent means. By following Jesus, he had to give up these notions since Jesus was opposed to violent solutions and is the “Prince of Peace.”

This apostle is also known as Jude. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus, a probable surname so as not to confuse him with the other apostle with the same name, that betrayed Jesus. At the Last Supper, he asked Jesus why he revealed himself to them and not to the rest of the world.

Each of the Gospels calls Judas a traitor. He betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, and when he realized the magnitude of what he did, he hanged himself.