The following Table[28] will show the probable field of the labours of each Apostle, so far as the record of it has come down to us:--
Mesopotamia (Turkey in Asia) St. Peter and St. Jude.
Thrace (Turkey in Europe) St. Andrew. The flourishing Church of Constantinople afterwards sprang up on this field of his labours.
North Africa (Egypt and St. Simon Zelotes. St. Mark Algeria) specially connected with Alexandria.
Asia Minor (Turkey in Asia) St. Paul and St. John.
Gaul (France) and Britain St. Paul and St. Joseph of Arimathea.
[2] The _first_ offers of salvation continued to be made to the Jews, even after the recognition by the Church of her mission to the Gentiles.
[5] "presbyter," afterwards shortened into "Prester" and "Priest," is derived from the Greek word "Presbyteros," "an Elder."
[8] The word "Bishop" is derived from the Greek "Episcopos," and signifies an overseer.
[9] 1 Tim. v. 1, 19, 22. 2 Tim. i. 6. Titus i. 5; ii. 15.
[13] St. James, as Bishop of the Diocese, taking precedence in this instance even of St. Peter.
[15] This is the last mention of St. Peter in the Book of Acts.
[17] Acts xv. 36-41. The last mention of St. Barnabas in the Book of Acts.
[18] Compare Acts xvi. 3; and Gal. ii. 3, 4.
[20] Comp. St. Mark xiv. 58; and St. Luke xxiii. 2.
[21] Both Philippi and Thessalonica eventually became the seats of flourishing Christian Churches, to whom St. Paul wrote Epistles.
[23] There are some reasons for thinking that men of cultivated minds and high social position were preferred for Bishops in the early as well as in later ages of the Church.
Final Settlement of the Church by St. John
It seems probable that most of the Apostles had entered into rest before the Destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70, and that St. John the Divine was the only one of the Apostolic body who long survived that event.
[Sidenote: St. Peter began to found the Church, St. John completed its foundation.]
To St. Peter, one of the "pillars" of the Church, it had been given to begin the great work of laying the foundation of the Mystical Temple of God; to St. John, the other of the two, was allotted the task of perfecting what had been begun, so that a sure and steady basis should not be wanting on which the New Jerusalem might rise through time to eternity[1].