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James, son of

“St. ” redirects here. For other uses, see St. Jacob whose martyrdom is recorded in the New Testa- (disambiguation). ment. He is, thus, traditionally believed to be the first of the twelve martyred for his faith. [:1-2] James, son of Zebedee (Greek Ἰάκωβος, from Nixon suggests that this may have been caused by James’ fiery temper,[3] for which he and his earned the Hebrew/ Yaʿqob; died 44 AD) was one of the [:17] Twelve Apostles of , and traditionally considered the nickname Boanerges or “Sons of Thunder”. F. contrasts this story to that of the Liberation of first apostle to be martyred. He was a son of Zebedee and F. Bruce Peter, and notes that “James should die while Peter , and brother of . He is also called [4] James the Greater or to distinguish should escape” is a “mystery of .” him from James, son of . James the Greater is the of . 2 Veneration

1 In the

The son of Zebedee and Salome, James is styled “the Greater” to distinguish him from the Apostle James “the Less”, who was probably shorter of stature. We know nothing of St. James’s early life. He was the brother of John, the beloved , and probably the elder of the two.[1] His parents seem to have been people of means. Zebedee was a fisherman of the Sea of , who probably lived in or near , perhaps in Capharnaum; and had some boatmen or hired men. Salome was one of the pious women who afterwards followed and “ministered unto him of their substance”. And his brother John was personally known to the high-priest, and must have had wherewithal to provide for the Mother of Jesus.[1] It is probable that his brother had not received the tech- nical training of the rabbinical schools; in this sense they were unlearned and without any official position among the Jews. But, according to the social rank of their par- ents, they must have been men of ordinary education, in the common walks of Jewish life. They had frequent op- portunity of coming in contact with Greek life and lan- guage, which were already widely spread along the shores of the Galilean Sea.[1] James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. The Synoptic state that James and John Statue of St. James the Greater in the Archbasilica of St. John were with their father by the seashore when Jesus called Lateran by Camillo Rusconi. them to follow him.[Matt. 4:21-22][Mk. 1:19-20] James was one of only three apostles whom Jesus selected to bear witness Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to to his Transfiguration.[2] James and his brother wanted , his remains are held in de Compostela to call down fire on a Samaritan town, but were re- in . The traditional to the grave of buked by Jesus.[Lk 9:51-6] The records the saint, known as the extquotedblWay of St. James that “Herod the king” (traditionally identified with Herod extquotedbl, has been the most popular pilgrimage for Agrippa) had James executed by sword. He is the only Western European Catholics from the

1 2 3 SPAIN

onwards. 125,141 registered in 2008 as having preached the in Iberia as well as in the Holy Land; completed the final 100 km walk (200 km by bicycle) second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of Herod to Santiago to qualify for a Compostela.[5] When 25 July Agrippa his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, falls on a Sunday, it is a ″Jubilee″ year, and a special east where they landed at Padrón on the coast of Galicia, and door is opened for entrance into the Santiago Cathedral. took it inland for burial at . Jubilee years fall every 5, 6, and 11 years. In the 2004 Jubilee year, 179,944[6] pilgrims received a Compostela. The feast day of St. James is celebrated on 25 July on the liturgical calendars of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and certain Protestant churches. He is com- memorated on 30 April in the Orthodox Christian litur- gical calendar (for those churches which follow the tradi- tional Julian Calendar, 30 April currently falls on 13 May of the modern Gregorian Calendar).

3 Spain

The promotes the pilgrimage to Santiago.

The of his from to Galicia in the northwest of Iberia was effected, in legend, by a series of miraculous happenings: decapitated in with a sword by himself, his body was taken up by , and sailed in a rudderless, unattended boat to in Iberia, where a massive rock closed around Santiago Matamoros (Saint James the Moor-slayer). his relics, which were later removed to Compostela.

According to ancient local tradition, on 2 January AD 40, An even later tradition states that he miraculously ap- the Mary appeared to James on the bank of the peared to fight for the Christian army during the battle Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the of Clavijo, and was henceforth called Matamoros (Moor- Gospel in Iberia. She appeared upon a pillar, Nuestra slayer). Santiago y cierra España (“St. James and strike Señora del Pilar, and that pillar is conserved and vener- for Spain”) has been the traditional battle cry of Spanish ated within the present Basilica of , armies. in , Spain. Following that apparition, St. James St. James the Moorslayer, one of the most returned to Judea, where he was beheaded by King Herod valiant and knights the world ever had ... Agrippa I in the year 44.[7][8] has been given by God to Spain for its patron The 12th-century Historia Compostellana commissioned and protection. by Diego Gelmírez provides a summary of the — Cervantes, Don Quixote legend of St. James as it was believed at Compostela. Two propositions are central to it: first, that St. James A similar is related about San Millán. The pos- 3 sibility that a cult of James was instituted to supplant the ever involved, they might plausibly have been divided be- Galician cult of (executed in 385) who was tween the two. widely venerated across the north of Iberia as a The authenticity of the relics at Compostela was asserted at the hands of the rather than as a heretic should in the Bull of Leo XIII, Omnipotens Deus, of 1 not be overlooked. This was cautiously raised by Henry November 1884. Chadwick in his book on Priscillian;[7] it is not the tradi- tional Roman Catholic view. The The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) registered several “dif- of 1908, however, states: ficulties” or bases for doubts of this tradition, beyond the late appearance of the legend: Although the tradition that James founded James suffered martyrdom[Acts 12:1-2] in AD 44. Ac- an in Iberia was current in the cording to the tradition of the early Church, he had year 700, no certain mention of such tradition not yet left Jerusalem at this time.[10] St Paul, however, is to be found in the genuine writings of early in his to the Romans written after AD 44, ex- writers nor in the early councils; the first cer- pressed his intention to avoid “building on someone else’s tain mention we find in the ninth century, in foundation”,[Rom. 15:20] by visiting Spain[Rom. 15:23][15:24], Notker, a of St. Gall (Martyrologia, 25 suggesting that he knew of previous evangelization in His- July), (Poema de XII Apostoli), pania. and others. The tradition at Compostela placed the discovery of the relics of the saint in the time of king Alfonso II (791- 842) and of bishop Theodemir of Iria. These traditions were the basis for the pilgrimage route that began to be established in the 9th century, and the dedicated to James at Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia in Spain, became the most famous pilgrimage site in the Christian world. The Way of St. James is a tree of routes that cross Western Europe and arrive at Santiago through North- ern Spain. Eventually James became the patron saint of Spain. The English name extquotedblJames extquotedbl comes from Italian “Giacomo”, a variant of “Giacobo” derived from Iacobus (Jacob) in , itself from the Greek Ἰάκωβος. In French, Jacob is translated “”. In eastern Spain, Jacobus became “Jacome” or “Jaime ex- tquotedbl; in Catalunya, it became Jaume, in western which when ,ַיֲעֹקב Iberia it became “Iago”, from Hebrew prefixed with “Sant” became “Santiago” in Portugal and Galicia; “Tiago” is also spelled “Diego”, which is also the Spanish name of Saint Didacus of Alcalá. James’ was the shell (or “cockle shell”), and pilgrims to his shrine often wore that symbol on their hats or clothes. The French for a scallop is coquille St. Jacques, which means “cockle (or mollusk) of St. James”. The German word for a scallop is Jakobsmuschel, 17th-century interpretation of Saint James as the Moor-killer which means “mussel (or clam) of St. James extquot- from the Peruvian school of Cuzco. The hat has become edbl; the Dutch word is Jacobsschelp, meaning “shell of a Panama hat and his mantle is that of his military order. St. James”. The military , named after James, was The tradition was not unanimously admitted afterwards, founded in Spain in the 12th century to fight the . while numerous modern scholars, following Louis Duch- [9] Later, as in other orders of chivalry, the membership be- esne and T. E. Kendrick, reject it. The how- came a mark of honor. ever defended it (their Acta Sanctorum, July, VI and VII, gives further sources). The suggestion began to be made from the 9th century that, as well as evangelizing in Iberia, his body may have been brought to Compostela. No ear- 4 Kongo lier tradition places the burial of St. James in Hispania. A rival tradition places the relics of the apostle in the church James had a special place in the Central African Kingdom of St. at ; if any physical relics were of Kongo because of his association with the founding of 4 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

6 See also

• of Rates • Way of St. James • Cathedral of St. James (disambiguation) • St. James’ Church (disambiguation)

7 References

[1] Camerlynck, Achille. “St. James the Greater.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Ap- pleton Company, 1910. 16 Jan. 2014

[2] :1-9, :2-8, :28-36.

[3] R. E. Nixon, “Boanerges,” in J. D. Douglas (ed.), The New Dictionary (London: The Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1963), 1354.

[4] F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 251.

[5] Archicompostela.org

The Cross of Saint James, the symbol of the Order of Santiago; [6] Archicompostela.org the hilt is surmounted with a scallop. [7] Chadwick, Henry (1976), Priscillian of Avila, Oxford University Press in the country in the late 15th century. Por- [8] Fletcher, Richard A. (1984), Saint James’s Catapult : The tuguese sailors and diplomats brought the saint to Kongo Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Com- when they first reached the country in 1483. When King postela, Oxford University Press Afonso I of Kongo whose Kongo name was Mvemba a Nzinga, the second Christian king, was facing a rival, his [9] “Saint James in Spain”, London, 1960 brother Mpanzu a Kitima, in battle, he reported that a vi- [10] , Stromateis, VI; Apollonius, sion of Saint James and the Heavenly Host appeared in quoted by of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History the sky, frightened Mpanzu a Kitima’s soldiers, and gave V.xviii) Afonso the victory. As a result, he declared that Saint James’ feast day (25 July) be celebrated as a national hol- [11] 27:12. iday. Over the years, Saint James day became the central holi- day of Kongo. Taxes were collected on that day, and men 8 External links eligible for military duty were required to appear armed. There were usually regional celebrations as well as one at • “St. James the Great, Apostle”, Butler’s Lives of the the capital. In some cases, Kongolese slaves carried the Saints celebration to the New World, and there are still celebra- • The Life, and Martyrdom of St. James the tions of Saint James Day in Haiti and Puerto Rico. Great: Apostle and Martyr of the Christian Church • The Way of St. James Guide for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela following St. James’s foot- 5 Latter-day Saints steps. • R. A. Fletcher, Saint James’s Catapult: The Life The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Com- Church) teaches that James has been resurrected and that postela Oxford University Press, 1984: chapter 3, in 1829 he—along with the resurrected Peter and the “The Early History of the Cult of St. James” translated John—visited Smith and Oliver Cow- dery and restored the priesthood authority with apostolic • Apostle James the Brother of St John the Theologian succession to earth.[11] Orthodox and synaxarion 5

• History

• St. James the Greater, Apostle at the Christian Iconography web site

• St. James the Greater from Caxton’s translation of the Golden Legend 6 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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