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Lesser-Known Apostles and Where Catholics Can Encounter Them Today
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In Short: Ewtnnews highlights seven apostles often overlooked in Christian tradition and the places where their legacies are still honored.
Not many details are known about some of Jesus’ closest followers, but Ewtnnews provides insight into these lesser-known apostles and where their relics and tombs can be found today.
According to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 4, the brothers were mending their fishing nets when Jesus called them, and they immediately left their father and their fishing boat to follow him.
While Scripture gives us a significant amount of information about the lives of some apostles, not many details are known about others, but the Church has continued to remember and honor these apostles through the centuries, with churches, shrines, relics, and pilgrimage sites dedicated to them around the world.
Ewtnnews lists seven lesser-known apostles and the places where Catholics can still encounter their lives and legacy today, including James the Lesser, who was one of the three apostles who witnessed several important moments in Jesus' ministry.
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- In his catechesis on James the Lesser, he explained that his title, “the Lesser,” was used to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater.
- But the number of Catholics is growing fast: The Diocese of Knoxville alone is ranked among the top 10 in the nation for its rate of adult conversions.
- In fact, it would be more than a century before the first Mass was celebrated in the region, when Father Jacques Marquette accompanied the exploratory mission of Louis Joliet in 1682 and celebrated Mass where the Wolf River joined the Mississippi.
- Catholics in Tennessee are relatively few but strong and growing.
- Catholics first visited Tennessee as early as the 1500s, but a stable Catholic presence didn’t appear until the 1800s.
- The first Catholics to set foot in what is now the state of Tennessee were Spanish explorers.