The Twelve

The naming of the Apostles by The Lord Jesus is described as a solemn event in the Gospels:  Jesus spends the night in prayer, and the next day he separates the Twelve from the other disciples.  From that time on, they followed him closely, soaking in his every word and deed, even though only later, with the help of the Holy Spirit, did they understand what he said and did.  Two of them recorded the words and deeds they felt to be most significant in short books.  Four wrote letters that were preserved and have come down to us.  Eleven of them laid down their lives for him.  One betrayed him.  They were named in the Mass prayers that were used very early in Rome, and which later spread throughout the Western world.  The following is taken from St. Albert the Great's commentary on the Mass:

“Peter”, who was the chief and head of the Apostles, to whom were conveyed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, who was the strengthener of others after he rose from his triple denial of the Lord, concerning whom Christ spoke, in Luke 22, 32: 'At the time you have converted, strengthen your brothers.'  To this day, his successor strengthens the whole Church.  The name, “Peter”, comes from the word “petra”: “petros” in the Syrian language, means, “rocks”.  

“And Paul”.  He was added to the merit and rank of the Apostles not by men or through men, but by Jesus Christ, that he might be the chosen vessel to carry the name of the Lord to the gentiles, to kings, and to the sons of Israel (cf. Acts 9,15).  He was snatched up into the third heaven and into paradise, that he might hear secret words that are not permitted for men to speak.  However, he spoke wise things among the wise and the perfect, and he described the height of contemplation in terms of the marriage bed of those joined in marriage.  He gloried in his tribulations (cf. Romans 5, 3).  He was not unaware of the thoughts of Satan (cf. II. Corinthians II. 11).  He labored in a greater measure than all the other Apostles (cf. 2 Corinthians 11, 23).  He attributed all things to grace (cf. 1 Corinthians 15, 10).  And finally, he triumphed for the Faith by the sword.  After his death, he bore witness to the Faith, as it is written in the history of his passion.

“Andrew”, who came to Christ through the word of John, brought his own brother Peter to him.  

“James”, the greater, held the first place among the Apostles because he was the first among them to be crowned with the laurels of martyrdom, as it is written, in Acts 12, 2, concerning Herod: 'Moreover, he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.'

“John”, the beloved disciple of the Lord, who was present at the Transfiguration, and who lay upon the breast of Christ at the Last Supper.  He drank the flowing waters of the Gospel from that sacred font of the Lord’s breast, as Bede says, and so he wrote more loftily than the others of the divinity of the Lord.  And, to this virgin, the virgin Christ commended his Virgin Mother.  

“Thomas”, who was strengthened in his faith by the touch of Christ, after the Resurrection, so that he might doubt no more in any way.

“James” the lesser, who was the first bishop of Jerusalem, was so like to Christ in the form of his body and in the imitation of his religion, that he merited to be called, “the brother of the Lord”, by the Apostles.

“Philip”, who was instructed concerning the divinity of the Father and the Son (cf. John 14, 8).  He merited to hear Christ’s teaching when Christ wished to feed the crowds with his bread (cf. John 6, 5). 

“Bartholomew”, who is said to have been a noble and the only philosopher among the Apostles, whence he wrote a gospel, which Dionysius [the pseudo-Areopagite] remembered.  He said that Bartholomew had written, in the preface of his gospel, “The gospel is brief and also broad.”

“Matthew”, who , from a tax collector, was made both an Apostle and an Evangelist, for the hope of those repenting of their sins, was a distributor of heavenly talents, and a preparer of the Lord’s banquets (cf. Luke 5, 27).

“Simon”, who was the brother of James the lesser, was called, “the Canaanite” ["zealot"], for the zeal with which he held the Christian religion.

“And Thaddeus”, Jude Thaddeus, was called “the little heart” by the Apostles because of his careful watch of his heart.  He was the third brother of James, the “brother of the Lord”, and the brother of Simon the Canaanite.  The Lord chose these twelve: eleven on the earth, and the twelfth, Paul, from heaven.

Interestingly, St. Albert refers to a couple of apocryphal works as though to solid sources when he speaks of the preaching of Peter after his death, and in regards to the so-called Gospel of Bartholomew (which is lost).  The identity of his source for saying that Bartholomew was a "noble" and a "philosopher" is not clear.  It is not his apocryphal acts.  Nor is the source known for his claim that the Apostles called St. Jude "the little heart".  However, it was commonly held in the first centuries of the Church that James, Simon, and Jude were brothers, and were related to The Lord Jesus in some way.