He is named as an apostle in all the Gospels except John s, where a Nathanael appears instead.
Scholars generally say they are the same person.
It is believed that after Pentecost he took the Gospel to India, and also to Armenia. Traditionally he is held to have been flayed alive, and then beheaded, at a spot on the Caspian Sea. His relics are believed to have been transported firstly to an island off the Sicilian coast, then to Benevento, near Naples, and lastly to Rome, where they are enshrined in the church bearing his name on Tiber Island, alongside the Fatebenefratelli Hospital in the middle of the city. His cult was popular in England because one of his relics was obtained by Queen Emma, wife of King Cnut, in the 11th century, and there are many church dedications to him in this land.