Apostles Christians (second half of the second century and first half of the third century) believed that only Peter, Paul, and James, son of Zebedee, were martyred. The remainder or even all of the claims of martyred apostles do not rely upon historical or biblical evidence. The relics of the Apostles are claimed by various Churches, many in Italy. Each of the four listings of apostles in the New Testament (, , , and ) indicate that all the apostles were men. The canonical gospels and the book of Acts give varying names of the twelve apostles. The list in the
Communion of the Apostles (Signorelli) Communion of the Apostles (Signorelli) The Communion of the Apostles is a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Luca Signorelli, dating from around 1512. It is currently housed in the Diocesean Museum of Cortona, Tuscany. The iconography of the painting was rather unusual for Italy, and had been indeed inspired by Justus van Gent's "Corpus Domini Altarpiece" (1472–1474), that Signorelli had seen during his stay at Urbino. Above an ancient style background, similar to Perugino's works, Signorelli painted Christ in the center of the scene, surrounded by brightly dressed apostles in a pyramidal composition. Christ holds a dish with the hosts