Images: Wikimedia Commons
Clavis number: ECMA 184
Other descriptors: none
Location: adjacent to the church of Giovanni a Porta Latina, Rome
Category: church decoration, holy site
Related literature: Acts of John by Prochorus; Acts of John (Latin); Acts of John in Rome; Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum 36.3
Featured characters and locations: Domitian, John (Son of Zebedee), Rome.
1. DESCRIPTION
Date: the original chapel was built in the fifth or sixth century. The present building was constructed around 1509 by either Antonio da Sangallo the Younger or Baldassare Peruzzi. It was remodeled by Francesco Borromini in 1658.
1.1 Inscription
Location: inside above one of the doors
Source: Churches of Rome Wiki
Martyrii calicem bibit, hic atleta Iohannes, principii verbum cernere qui meruit, verberat hic fuste proconsul forfice tondit, quae fervens oleum laedere invaluit. Caeditur hic olium dolium cruor atque capilli, quae consecrantur, inclita Roma, tibi.
(“This athlete John drank the cup of martyrdom, who deserved to understand the words of the First Principle. Here the proconsul beat him with a rod and scraped him with pincers, whom the boiling oil was unable to harm. [His] flesh and the hairs on his head were sacrificed in this oil jar, which are consecrated to you, glorious Rome”).
1.2 Frescoes
Material: paint on plaster
Size: undisclosed
Provenance: painted by Lazzaro Baldi in 1716.
Images: Alvaro ed Elisabetta de Alvariis
1.3 Pit
Said to be where John was placed in the oil
Image: Alvaro ed Elisabetta de Alvariis
2. RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
The earliest reference to the story of John in Rome being boiled in oil is from Tertullian (De praescriptione haereticorum 36.3):
How happy is its church, on which apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood! where Peter endures a passion like his Lord’s! where Paul wins his crown in a death like John’s where the Apostle John was first plunged, unhurt, into boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile! See what she has learned, what taught, what fellowship has had with even (our) churches in Africa! (trans. New Advent)
The Acts of John in Rome 7–13 mentions his arrest in Ephesus, his transport to Rome and his trial there by the emperor Domitian. John proves the might of his god by drinking poison. Similarly, the Latin Acts of John has him again arrested in Ephesus but this time he is plunged in oil. When John comes out of the pot unharmed, he is exiled to Patmos where he composes his Apocalypse (1). John returns to Ephesus after the death of Domitian; there he is challenged by the priest Aristodemus to drink the poison (8).
The stories and church come together in the Martyrologium of Ado of Vienne (Martyrologium Adonis II Non. Mai), composed in the third quarter of the ninth century. The entry for May 6 says that John was transferred from Ephesus to Rome under Domitian. After sentencing, he was thrown into a barrel of boiling oil in front of the Porta Latina. In his memory, Christians built a church where he died and gather there on May 6. A Roman Sacramentary from the seventh century places this tradition a few centuries earlier; it includes the feast day of Natalis S. Johannis ante Portam Latinam on May 6.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blauuw, Sible de. “Church Beyond Canon. Notes on the Martyrium of John the Evangelist in Rome and the Basilica of San Giovanni a Porta Latina.” Pages 240–53 in The Apostles Peter, Paul, John, Thomas and Philip with their Companions in Late Antiquity. Edited by Tobias Nicklas, Janet E. Spittler, and Jan N. Bremmer. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.
__________. De ziener van Patmos voor de Latijnse Poort: De universaliteit van de kerk van Rome en de geschiedenis van een kerkgebouw (Valedictory lecture Radboud Universiteit). Nijmegen, 2016.
Claussen, Peter C. “S. Giovanni a Porta Latina.” Pages 133–86 in Die Kirchen der Stadt Rom im Mitelalter 1050–1300, Band 3 G-L. Edited by Peter C. Claussen, Daniela Mondini, and Darko Senekovic. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2010.
Coates-Stephens, Robert. “A Brick Cross Noted by Lucos Cozza in the Walls of S. Giovanni a Porta Latina.” Pages 183–91 in Scritti in onore di Lucos Cozza. Edited by Robert Coates Stephens and Lavinia Cozza. Rome: Quasar, 2014.
Krautheimer, Richard. “An Oriental basilica in Rome: S. Giovanni a Porta Latina.” American Journal of Archaeology Ser. 2, 40 (1936): 485–95.
Krautheimer, Richard, et al. Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae. The Early Christian Basilicas of Rome (IV–IX Cent.). 5 vols. Vatican City: Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, 1937–1977 (vol. 1, pp. 304–16).
Renzulli, Eva. “Borromini restauratore: S. Giovanni in Oleo e S. Salvatore a Ponte Rotto.” Annali di architettura 10–11 (1999): 203-20.
Schumacher, Renate, and Schumacher, Walter N. “Die Kirche San Giovanni a Porta Latina.” Kölner Domblat 12/13 (1957): 22–38.
Schumacher, Walter N. “Byzantinisches in Rom.” Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertum-skunde und Kirchengeschichte 68 (1973): 104–24.
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“San Giovanni in Oleo.” Wikipedia.
“San Giovanni in Oleo.” Churches of Rome Wiki.
“San Giovanni a Porta Latina.” Catholic Traveler. Youtube.
Entry created by Tony Burke, York University, 28 April 2025.