In Ephesus, the Apostle John and Mary inaugurated the contemplative Christian life

After the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostle John stayed with Mary for about twenty years. 

From 30 to 36 A.D, after the Pentecost, John, who was only 20 years old, worked closely with Peter in evangelizing Jerusalem, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. The young John remained silent during that period, until the persecution that followed the dismissal of Pontius Pilate, at the end of 36, forced the Apostles to flee. 

Around the year 37, John left Palestine with the Virgin Mary to settle in Ephesus, Turkey, as a solid local tradition testifies, evoked in 431 by the official letter that the Fathers of the Council of Ephesus sent to Nestorius. But curiously, it was not John and Mary who founded the Church in Ephesus: it was the apostle Paul who was to do so, 17 years later, when he spent two years there. 

How can we explain this fact, when all the other Apostles took advantage of the dispersion to found churches and spread the Good Word? It seems that John and Mary inaugurated a new kind of life in Ephesus, without direct apostolate, in silence and prayer.

Library of Marian Writings