The Basilica of St. John was constructed in the 6th century over the burial site of John the Apostle. It is located in what is now Selcuk about 3.5 km from Ephesus and 7 km from the ‘Doorway to the Virgin’ house on Mount Koressos.
From Basilica of St. John Wikipedia:
Legend has it that John knew a week before that he was going to die and told his disciples that he had been called home. On the following Sunday he went to preach at the small church that existed at that time at Selcuk. After preaching he entered the cave below the church. An intense light filled the cave so that none of John’s disciples could go in. When the light dissipated John had also gone.
Thus, if this legend were true, this cave marked the spot where the apostle John died, was resurrected and his body was at once assumed into heaven.
When this cave tomb was opened during the time of Constantine I in the 4th century no body or relics were found in it. This advanced the legend that St. John was assumed into heaven.
Procopius, a Roman historian of the 6th century wrote that on the site at Selcuk of a small ruined church dating from the time of apostle John, the Emperor Justinian had a huge and beautiful church built. It was completed in 565 AD. The tomb of St. John below the church was also reconstructed. This church, the Basilica of St. John was considered one of the holiest churches at that time, but after the 9th century it was no longer mentioned as another church dedicated to John the Theologian had been built.
The thing which supports belief in the assumption of John is that there are no relics of St. John. John is the only saint apart from the Virgin Mary whose body has not been claimed by anyone anywhere.
As with Jesus and Mary veneration for John consisted only of things that were not the body itself. For Jesus and Mary it was the burial shroud, the wood of the cross, or Mary’s belt. For John it was dust around his tomb that they called ‘manna’. At the Basilica of St. John on the 8th May the dust around the tomb would stir. It was collected into flasks for pilgrims to take home. This went on for hundreds of years.
The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates the ‘Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian’ on the 26th September; the ‘Feast of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian’ on the 8th May; and John as a member of the twelve apostles on the 30th June.
Therefore, it is my belief that the apostle John lived at the house on Mount Koressos from where he went to a small church at Selcuk 3 ½ miles away to preach. It is here that he entered a cave beneath the church and disappeared from earth. This cave was his empty tomb.
Thus, the assumption that took place near Ephesus was that of St. John when he was very old and called home as the beloved disciple of Jesus. The empty tomb of Mary is located at Jerusalem near where she lived on Mount Zion. Mary’s assumption took place near to Gethsemani at Jerusalem.
Pilgrims went to the small church and later the large basilica of St. John at Selcuk for over a thousand years to see his empty tomb and get a flask of miraculous dust to take home. The assumption of John meant that there were no relics of John to see.
Merry and True 