St James (1st century) son of Zebedee and brother of John
St James, sometimes called the Greater, is probably best known today through the Camino, or
the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Pope
Benedict XVI visited this shrine on 6th November 2010.
Son of Zebedee
James, sometimes known as the
Great, by contrast with James the Less, the son of Alphaeus (feast 3rd
May Saints Philip and James) is described in the Gospels along with John
as "the son of Zebedee", a fisherman. Jesus recruited both of them
along with Simon and his brother Andrew by the Sea of Galilee.
They were
in their helping their father mend the nets. They left him in the boat
with the men he employed and went after Jesus (Mark 1:16-20).
"Sons of Thunder"
James and John are called Boanerges
or "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). This seems to stem from the incident
reported in Luke 9:54 where a Samaritan village would not receive Jesus
because he was making for Jerusalem. James and John asked Jesus if he
wanted them to call down fire from heaven to burn them up!
Peter, James and John
On three important
occasions in the life of Jesus in the New Testament, James is numbered
with Peter and John in a threesome: the first of these is in raising the
daughter of Jairus to life (Mk 5:35-43); the second is the
transfiguration (Mk 9:2-8); the third is during his agony in Gethsemane
(Mk 14:32-42).
Beheaded by King Herod Agrippa
The next mention
of him in the New Testament is in Acts 12:2 where he is mentioned in the
context of the arrest and miraculous escape of Peter as the first
apostle put to death for the Christian faith by Herod Agrippa I (king of
Judaea and Samaria 41-44 AD).
The legend of James in Spain
The legend or tradition about St James in Spain comes from the 12th-century Historia Compostellana commissioned
by bishop Diego Gelmírez.
Two elements are central to it: first, that
St James preached the gospel in Iberia as well as in the Holy Land;
and second, that after his martyrdom at the hands of Herod Agrippa I,
his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they landed at
Padrón on the coast of Galicia, and took it inland for burial at
Santiago de Compostela.
St James the Moorslayer
An
even later tradition has James miraculously appearing during the battle
of Clavijo in 844 to fight for the Christian army led by Ramiro I of
Asturias against the Muslims led by the Emir of Córdoba.
It is from this
tradition arose of Santiago Matamoros (St James the Moorslayer), celebrated in Spanish art and literature.
This is mentioned by Cervantes in Don Quixote and is celebrated in numerous statues in churches along the route of the Camino.