James, son of Zebedee

James

Saint James the Greater by Guido Reni

Apostle and martyr

Born

Bethsaida, Judaea, Roman Empire

Died

44 AD
Jerusalem, Judaea, Roman Empire

Venerated in All Christianity

Canonized

Pre-Congregation

Major shrine Cathedral of Santiago de

Compostela, Galicia (Spain),Cathedral of St. James,
Jerusalem, Armenian Quarter(Israel)

Feast

25 July (Western Christianity)

30 April (Eastern Christianity)
30 December (Hispanic Church)

Attributes

Scallop, Pilgrim's hat

Patronage

Places
Galicia, Guatemala, Nicaragua,Spain; Acoma
Pueblo, Badian in the
Philippines, Guayaquil,Sahuayo, Santiago de
Quertaro, etc.
Professions
Veterinarians, equestrians,furriers, tanners, pharmacists

James, son of Zebedee (Hebrew: Yaqob, Greek: ; died 44 AD) was one of the Twelve
Apostles of Jesus, and traditionally considered the first apostle to be martyred. He was a son
of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of John the Apostle. He is also called James the Greater or James the
Great to distinguish him from James, son of Alphaeus and James the brother of Jesus (James the Just). James
the son of Zebedee is the patron saint of Spain, and as such is often identified as Santiago.
Contents
[hide]

1In the New Testament

2Name
3Veneration
4Jerusalem
5Spain
o 5.1Mission in Iberia and burial at Compostela
5.1.1Controversy
o 5.2Medieval "Santiago Matamoros" legend
o 5.3Emblem
o 5.4Military Order of Santiago
6Congo
7Latter-day Saints
8See also
9References
10External links

In the New Testament[edit]

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.[citation needed] He was the brother of John, the beloved disciple, and
probably the elder of the two.[1]
His parents seem to have been people of means. Zebedee, his father, was a fisherman of the Sea of Galilee,
who probably lived in or near Bethsaida, present Galilee, Israel, perhaps in Capernaum, and had some boatmen
or hired men. Salome, his mother, was one of the pious women who afterwards followed Christ 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 technical 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
parents, they must have been men of ordinary education, in the common walks of Jewish life. James is
described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. The Synoptic Gospelsstate that James and John were with
their father by the seashore when Jesus called 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 to his Transfiguration.[2] James and John[3] (or, in another
tradition, their mother[4]) asked Jesus to grant them seats on his right and left in his glory. Jesus rebuked them,
and the other ten apostles were annoyed with them. James and his brother wanted to call down fire on
a Samaritan town, but were rebuked by Jesus.[Lk 9:51-6] The Acts of the Apostles records that "Herod the king"
(traditionally identified with Herod Agrippa) had James executed by sword. He is the only apostle whose
martyrdom is recorded in the New Testament. He is, thus, traditionally believed to be the first of the twelve
apostles martyred for his faith.[Acts 12:1-2] Nixon suggests that this may have been caused by James' fiery
temper,[5] for which he and his brother earned the nickname Boanerges or "Sons of Thunder".[Mark 3:17] F. F.

Bruce contrasts this story to that of the Liberation of Saint Peter, and notes that "James should die while Peter
should escape" is a "mystery of divine providence".[6]
The New Testament scholar Dennis MacDonald identifies Castor and Pollux as basis characters for the
appearance of James and John in the narrative by Mark the Evangelist.[7]Macdonald cites the origin of this
identification to 1913 when J. Rendel Harris published his work Boanerges,[8] a Greek term for Thunder,
the epithet of Zeus father of Pollux in what MacDonald calls a form of early Christian Dioscurism.

Name[edit]
The English name "James" comes from Italian "Giacomo", a variant of "Giacobo" derived from Iacobus (Jacob)
in Latin, itself from the Greek "Iacobos". In French, Jacob is translated "Jacques". In eastern
Spain, Jacobus became "Jacome" or "Jaime"; in Catalonia, it became "Jaume", in western Iberia it became
"Iago", from Hebrew , which when prefixed with "Sant" became "Santiago" in Portugal and Galicia; "Tiago" is
also spelled "Diego" in Spanish and "Diogo" in Portuguese, which is also the Spanish name ofSaint Didacus of
Alcal.[citation needed] Alternatively, Santiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu, "Saint
James".[9]

Veneration[edit]

Saint James the Elder byRembrandt

He is depicted clothed as a pilgrim; note the scallop shell on his shoulder and his staff and pilgrim's hat beside him.

Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to legend, his remains are held in Santiago de
Compostela in Galicia. (The nameSantiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu, "Saint
James".) The traditional pilgrimage to the grave of the saint, known as the "Way of St. James", has been the
most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the Early Middle Agesonwards, although its
modern revival and popularity stems from Walter Starkie's 1957 book, The Road to Santiago. The Pilgrims of St.
James.[9] 237,886 pilgrims registered in 2014 as having completed the final 100 km walk (200 km by bicycle) to
Santiago to qualify for a Compostela.[10] When 25 July falls on a Sunday, it is a Jubilee year (an Ao Santo
Jubilar Compostelano or Ao Santo Jacobeo) and a special east door is opened for entrance into Santiago
Cathedral. Jubilee years fall every 5, 6, and 11 years. In the 2004 Jubilee year, 179,944[11] pilgrims received a
Compostela. In 2010 the number had risen to 275,135.[12]
The feast day of St. James is celebrated on 25 July on the liturgical calendars of the Roman
Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and certainProtestant churches. He is commemorated on 30 April in the Orthodox
Christian liturgical calendar (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, 30 April currently
falls on 13 May of the modern Gregorian Calendar).

Jerusalem[edit]
The site of martyrdom is located within the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of St. James in the Armenian
Quarter of Jerusalem. The Chapel of St. James the Great, located to the left of the sanctuary, is the traditional
place where he was martyred when King Agrippas ordered him to be beheaded (Acts 12:1-2). His head is buried
under the altar, marked by a piece of red marble and surrounded by six votive lamps.[13]

Spain[edit]

Mission in Iberia and burial at Compostela[edit]

The 12th-century Historia Compostelana commissioned by bishop Diego Gelmrez provides a summary of the
legend of St. James as it was believed at Compostela. Two propositions are central to it: first, that St. James
preached the gospel in Iberia as well as in the Holy Land; second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of
Herod Agrippa his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they landed at Padrn on the coast
of Galicia, and took it inland for burial at Santiago de Compostela.
The translation of his relics from Judea to Galicia in the northwest of Iberia was effected, in legend, by a series
of miraculous happenings: decapitated in Jerusalem with a sword by Herod Agrippa himself, his body was taken
up by angels, and sailed in a rudderless, unattended boat to Iria Flavia in Iberia, where a massive rock closed
around his relics, which were later removed to Compostela.
According to ancient local tradition, on 2 January AD 40, the Virgin Mary appeared to James on the bank of
the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the Gospel in Iberia. She appeared upon a
pillar, Nuestra Seora del Pilar, and that pillar is conserved and venerated within the present Basilica of Our
Lady of the Pillar, in Zaragoza, Spain. Following that apparition, St. James returned to Judea, where he was
beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44.[14][15]
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 shrine 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 Northern Spain. Eventually James became the patron
saint of Spain.
Controversy[edit]
James suffered martyrdom[Acts 12:1-2] in AD 44. According to the tradition of the early Church, he had not yet left
Jerusalem at this time.[16] An argument supporting this assertion is based on St Paul's Epistle to the Romans,
written after AD 44, in which he expressed his intention to avoid "building on someone else's foundation",[Rom.
15:20]
by visiting Spain[Rom. 15:23-24], suggesting that he knew of no previous evangelisation in Hispania.
The tradition was not unanimously admitted afterwards, while numerous modern scholars, following Louis
Duchesne and T. E. Kendrick,[17] reject it. (According to Kendrick, even if one admits the existence of miracles,
James' presence in Spain is impossible.) The Bollandists however 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 earlier tradition places the burial of
St. James in Hispania. A rival tradition places the relics of the apostle in the church of St. Saturnin at Toulouse; if
any physical relics were ever involved, they might plausibly have been divided between the two.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) registered several "difficulties" or bases for doubts of this tradition, beyond the
late appearance of the legend:
Although the tradition that James founded an apostolic see in Iberia was current in the year 700, no certain
mention of such tradition is to be found in the genuine writings of early writers nor in the early councils; the first
certain mention we find in the ninth century, in Notker, a monk of St. Gall (Martyrologia, 25 July), Walafrid
Strabo (Poema de XII Apostoli), and others.
The authenticity of the relics at Compostela was asserted in the Bull of Pope Leo XIII, Omnipotens Deus, of 1
November 1884.

Medieval "Santiago Matamoros" legend[edit]

Main article: Saint James Matamoros

Saint James as the Moor-killer by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Museum of Fine Arts,Budapest). His mantle is that of his
military order.

An even later tradition states that he miraculously appeared to fight for the Christian army during the
legendary battle of Clavijo, and was henceforth called Santiago Matamoros (Saint James the Moorslayer). Santiago, y cierra, Espaa! ("St. James and strike for Spain") was the traditional battle cry of medieval
Spanish (Christian) armies. Cervantes has Don Quixote explaining that "the great knight of the russet cross was
given by God to Spain as patron and protector".[18]
A similar miracle is related about San Milln. The possibility that a cult of James was instituted to supplant the
Galician cult of Priscillian (executed in 385) who was widely venerated across the north of Iberia as a martyr at
the hands of the bishops rather than as a heretic should not be overlooked. This was cautiously raised by Henry
Chadwick in his book on Priscillian;[14] it is not the traditional Roman Catholic view. The Catholic Encyclopedia of
1908, however, is quite cautious about the origins of the cult (see above at "Controversy").

Emblem[edit]

The Cross of Saint James, the symbol of the Order of Santiago; the hilt is surmounted with a scallop.

James' emblem was the scallop 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, which means "mussel (or clam) of St. James";
the Dutch word is Jacobsschelp, meaning "shell of St. James".

Military Order of Santiago[edit]

The military Order of Santiago, named after James, was founded in Spain in the 12th century to fight the Moors.
Later, as in other orders of chivalry, the membership became a mark of honor.

Congo[edit]
James had a special place in the Central African Kingdom of Kongo because of his association with the founding
of Christianity in the country in the late 15th century. Portuguese sailors and diplomats brought the saint to
Kongo when they first reached the country in 1483. When King Afonso I of Kongo whose Kongo name was
Mvemba a Nzinga, the second Christian king, was facing a rival, his brother Mpanzu a Kitima, in battle, he
reported that a vision of Saint James and the Heavenly Host appeared in the sky, frightened Mpanzu a Kitima's
soldiers, and gave Afonso the victory. As a result, he declared that Saint James' feast day (25 July) be
celebrated as a national holiday.
Over the years, Saint James day became the central holiday of Kongo. Taxes were collected on that day, and
men eligible for military duty were required to appear armed. There were usually regional celebrations as well as
one at the capital. In some cases, Kongolese slaves carried the celebration to the New World, and there are still
celebrations of Saint James Day in Haiti and Puerto Rico.

Latter-day Saints[edit]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) teaches that James has been resurrected and
that in 1829 healong with the resurrected Peter and the translatedJohnvisited Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery and restored the priesthood authority with apostolic succession to earth.[19]

See also

Book: Apostle (Christian)

The Apocryphon of James (also known as the Secret Book of James)

Cathedral of St. James (disambiguation)
Jacob
Our Lady of the Pillar, a Marian/angelic apparition that James had according to
tradition
Saint Peter of Rates
Santiago Matamoros, lit. "Saint James the Moor-slayer"
St. James' Church (disambiguation)
Way of St. James
Military Order of Saint James of the Sword

"St. James the Great, Apostle", Butler's Lives of the Saints

The Life, Miracles and Martyrdom of St. James the 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 footsteps.
R. A. Fletcher, Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmrez of
Santiago de Compostela Oxford University Press, 1984: chapter 3, "The Early
History of the Cult of St. James"
Apostle James the Brother of St John the
Theologian Orthodox icon and synaxarion
History
St. James the Greater, Apostle at the Christian Iconography web site
St. James the Greater from Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend