The first name Jean has been widespread since biblical times, and so it should not surprise us to find a whole series of blessed and saints with this name over the two millennia of Christianity. At the threshold from the Old to the New Testament we come across John the Baptist, to whom most of the churches dedicated to John are dedicated. But one of the four men who wrote the New Testament Gospels also bears this name. This church in the town, which even bears his name in the place name (Saint-Jean-Lagineste), is dedicated to him, "Saint-Jean l'Évangeliste". A long church tradition has considered the evangelist to be identical with the apostle John mentioned in the Bible, but this is doubted in biblical scholarship.
"The Gospel of John exerts a peculiar fascination. It is difficult to escape its solemn, sometimes mystical language. It addresses deep human needs and longings: hunger and thirst, the search for fulfilling eternal life, the longing for personal communion with God.” (Franz-Josef Ortkemper)