Very little is known of their families. St. Clement of Alexandria says
that Peter had children, that Philip had daughters, and that he gave
them in marriage. The Acts of the Apostles specify St. Philip, whose
four daughters prophesied, of whom it is believed that one was married,
and that this one was St. Hermione.
Eusebius relates that Nicholas, chosen by the apostles to co-operate in
the sacred ministry with St. Stephen, had a very handsome wife, of whom
he was jealous. The apostles having reproached him with his jealousy, he
corrected himself of it, brought his wife to them and said, "I am ready
to yield her up; let him marry her who will." The apostles, however, did
not accept his proposal. He had by his wife a son and several daughters.
Cleophas, according to Eusebius and St. Epiphanius, was brother to St.
Joseph, and father of St. James the Less, and of St. Jude, whom he had
by Mary, sister to the Blessed Virgin. So that St. Jude the apostle was
first cousin to Jesus Christ.
Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius, tells us that two grandsons of St. Jude
were informed against to the emperor Domitian as being descendants of
David and having an incontestable right to the throne of Jerusalem.
Domitian, fearing that they might avail themselves of this right, put
questions to them himself, and they acquainted him with their genealogy.
The emperor asked them what fortune they had. They answered that they
had thirty-nine acres of land, which paid tribute, and that they worked
for their livelihood. He then asked them when Jesus Christ's kingdom was
to come, and they told him "At the end of the world." After which
Domitian permitted them to depart in peace; which goes far to prove that
he was not a persecutor. This, if I mistake not, is all that is known
about the children of the apostles.
III.
_Where did the Apostles Live? Where did They Die?_
According to Eusebius, James, sur named the Just, brother to Jesus
Christ, was in the beginning placed first _on the episcopal throne_ of
the city of Jerusalem; these are his own words. So that, according to
him, the first bishopric was that of Jerusalem--supposing that the Jews
knew even the name of _bishop_. It does, indeed, appear very likely that
the brother of Jesus Christ should have been the first after him, and
that the very city in which the miracle of our salvation was worked
should have become the metropolis of the Christian world. As for the
_episcopal throne_, that is a term which Eusebius uses by anticipation.
We all know that there was then neither throne nor see.