St. James, the brother of St. John Evangelist, son of Zebedee
and Salome and nearly related to Christ, was called the Great to
distinguish him from the other apostle of the same name who was
bishop of Jerusalem, and is surnamed the Less, perhaps because he was
lower in stature, or more probably because he was the younger. St.
James the Great seems to have been born about twelve years before
Christ, and was many years older than his brother St. John. Salome is
otherwise called Mary, and was sister to the Blessed Virgin, which
some take in the strict sense of the word; others understand by it
only cousin-german, according to the Hebrew phrase, and think that
the Blessed Virgin was an only daughter.
St. James was by birth a Galilean, and by profession a fisherman
with his father and brother, living probably at Bethsaida, where
St. Peter also dwelt at that time. Jesus walking by the lake of
Genesareth saw St. Peter and St. Andrew fishing, and he called them
to come after him, promising to make them fishers of men. Going on
a little farther on the shore, he saw two other brothers, James and
John, in a ship, with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and
he also called them; who forthwith left their nets and their father
and followed him.[282] Probably by conversing with St. Peter their
townsman, and by other means, they had before this call an entire
conviction that Jesus was the Christ; and no sooner did they hear
his invitation, and saw the marks of his divine will directing them
to what was eminently conducive to his honor, but the same moment
they quitted all things to comply with this summons. They held no
consultation, made no demur, started no difficulties, thought of
no consequences or dangers; and their sacrifice was most perfect
and entire. Like Abraham, they preferred obedience to the divine
command, before all the endearments of their nearest relations,
and forsook all they had, and all their hopes and prospects in
the world, to become the disciples of Jesus. Zebedee their father
seems to have approved of their resolution, and their mother Salome
devoted herself heartily to the service of our Lord, as the gospels
frequently mention. All fervent souls ought to be in the like
dispositions of perfect sacrifice with these apostles, without the
least inordinate attachment to any thing on earth, being most ready
to renounce everything if God’s greater glory should require it. With
what boundless liberality does the Divine Spirit shower down his
choicest treasures upon souls which thus perfectly open themselves
to him! This the apostles, of whom we speak, happily experienced in
themselves. But they for some time so followed Christ, and listened
to his divine instructions, as still to return from time to time to
their fishing trade for a maintenance. It was in the same first year
of Christ’s preaching that Peter and Andrew, at the command of their
divine Master, took a prodigious shoal of fishes by a miraculous
draught. James and John were their partners, though in another boat,
and were called in to assist in hauling up the nets. Astonished at
this manifestation of Christ’s power, they entirely quitted their
business, the more perfectly to attach themselves to him.[283]
In the year 31 St. James was present with his brothers St. John
and St. Peter at the cure of St. Peter’s mother-in-law, and at the
raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead. This same year Jesus
formed the college of his apostles, into which he adopted St. James
and his brother St. John. He gave these two the surname of Boanerges,
or Sons of Thunder, probably to denote their active zeal. When a town
of the Samaritans refused to entertain Christ, they suggested that
he should call down fire from heaven to consume it; but our Blessed
Redeemer gave them to understand that meekness and patience were the
arms by which they were to conquer.[284] Christ distinguished St.
Peter, St. James, and St. John by many special favors above the rest
of the apostles. They alone were admitted to be spectators first of
his glorious transfiguration, and afterward of his agony and bloody
sweat in the garden. The instructions and example of the Son of God
had not fully enlightened the understandings of these apostles, nor
purified their hearts, before the Holy Ghost had shed his beams
upon them; and their virtue was still imperfect, as appeared in the
following instance;--Mary Salome, the mother of James and John,
relying upon their merit, and her relation to Christ, and imagining
that he was going to erect a temporal monarchy, according to the
notion of the carnal Jews concerning the Messias, presented to him a
request that her two sons might sit, the one on his right hand and
the other on his left, in his kingdom. By this example we are put in
mind how often the fondness of parents renders them the spiritual
murderers of their own children, and makes them blindly excuse,
flatter, and encourage their secret vices and passions. At the same
time we are taught how formidable an enemy ambition is, which could
find admittance in the breasts of two apostles (though yet novices)
before the descent of the Holy Ghost. They doubtless disguised their
vice under the cloak of a reasonable desire, and a virtuous emulation
of preferment, with a design of serving their Master by it. Only the
children of light discover the deceit and snare of this enemy; only
profound humility discerns and condemns the specious pretences of
subtle pride and covetousness. The two sons of Zebedee seem to have
spoken by the mouth of their mother; wherefore Christ directed his
answer to them, telling them, they knew not what they asked; for in
his kingdom preferments are attainable, not by the most forward and
ambitious, but by the most humble, and most laborious, and the most
patient. He therefore asked them if they were able to drink of his
cup of suffering. The two apostles understanding the condition under
which Christ offered them his kingdom, and glowing with ardor and
courage to suffer, answered peremptorily they were able to do it. Our
Lord told them, they should indeed have their portions of suffering;
but for the honors of his kingdom, he could make no other disposal of
them than according to his decrees in conjunction with his Father, in
proportion to every one’s charity and patience in suffering.
The virtue of the most fervent novices in the service of God is very
imperfect, so long as entire self-denial, and a great assiduity and
spirit of prayer have not yet prepared their souls for, and called
down upon them a plentiful effusion of the Holy Ghost, who fills
their understanding with a clear and new heavenly light, and by
the ardor of his charity consumes the rust of the affections, and
fills them with his fervor. In this state even the moral virtues
acquire an heroic and infused degree of perfection. Humility now
gives the soul a much more clear and feeling knowledge of her
own infirmities, baseness, and imperfections, with much stronger
sentiments of a just contempt of herself; and the like is to be said
of divine and fraternal charity, and all other virtues; so that she
seems to herself translated into a region of new light, in which by
continual heroic acts of these virtues, and especially of prayer
and contemplation, she makes daily and wonderful advances. This
perfection the apostles received in a more miraculous manner by the
descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, when he not only engraved the
law of love deeply in their hearts, but also bestowed on them the
external graces and gifts of prophecy and miracles, and qualified
them for the execution of the great commission they had received from
Christ.
How St. James was employed in preaching and promoting the gospel
after Christ’s ascension, we have no account from the writers of
the first ages of Christianity. It appears that he left Judæa some
time after the persecution that was raised at the martyrdom of St.
Stephen in the year 30, and was returned again ten years after when
he suffered martyrdom. The addition to St. Jerom’s catalogue of
illustrious men tells us, that he preached the gospel to the twelve
tribes of the Jews, in their dispersion up and down the world. Though
the apostles, during the first twelve years, preached generally in
the neighborhood of Judea, yet St. James might in that interval
make a voyage to Spain, and preach some time in that country, as
Baronius observes. F. Cuper adds, that his martyrdom happened above
a year after the dispersion of the apostles, in which space he had
the fairest opportunity of visiting Spain. That he preached there is
constantly affirmed by the tradition of that church, mentioned by
St. Isidore, the Breviary of Toledo, the Arabic books of Anastasius
patriarch of Antioch, concerning the Passions of the martyrs and
others. Cuper the Bollandist[285] traces this tradition very high,
and confirms it from St. Jerom,[286] St. Isidore, the ancient
Spanish office, &c., and from many corroborating circumstances. St.
Epiphanius says, that St. James always lived a bachelor, in much
temperance and mortification, never eating flesh nor fish; that he
wore only one coat, and a linen cloak, and that he was holy and
exemplary in all manner of conversation. He was the first among the
apostles who had the honor to follow his divine master by martyrdom,
which he suffered at Jerusalem, whither he was returned, in the
eleventh year after our Lord’s ascension.
Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, by Aristobulus, was author of this
persecution. Being brought up at Rome in the reign of Tiberius, he,
basely flattering Caligula in his passions, gained the confidence
of that monster, who was no sooner placed on the imperial throne
than he gave Agrippa the title of king, with the tetrarchies of
Philip and Lysanias, which were then vacant.[287] Claudius, in the
year 41, enlarged his dominions, giving him also Jerusalem and all
the rest of Judæa, Samaria, and whatever other provinces had been
possessed by his grandfather Herod. He gave also to his younger
brother Herod the little kingdom of Chalcis in Syria, near mount
Labinus. Agrippa reigned with great state and magnificence. Being
very fond of pleasing the Jewish nation, when he came from Cæsarea to
Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the year 43, he began to persecute
the Christians; and the first who fell a victim to his popular
zeal was St. James the Great, whom he caused to be apprehended
and beheaded there a little before Easter, in the year 43, about
fourteen years after the death of Christ. Clement of Alexandria,
and from him Eusebius,[288] relate that his accuser, observing the
great courage and constancy of mind wherewith the apostle underwent
his trial, was so affected with it, that he repented of what he had
done, declared himself publicly a Christian, and was condemned to be
beheaded with St. James. As they were both led together to execution,
he begged pardon of the apostle by the way for having apprehended
him. St. James, after pausing a little, turned to him, and embraced
him, saying, _Peace be with you_. He then kissed him, and they were
both beheaded together.[289] The body of the apostle was interred
at Jerusalem; but not long after carried by his disciples into
Spain, and deposited at Iria Flavia, now called El Padron, upon the
borders of Gallicia. The sacred relics were discovered there in the
beginning of the ninth century, in the reign of Alphonsus the Chaste,
king of Leon. By the order of that prince they were translated
to Compostella, four miles distant, to which place pope Leo III.
transferred the episcopal see from Iria Flavia. This place was first
called Ad S. Jacobum Apostolum, or Giacomo Postolo, which words have
been contracted into the present name, Compostella. It is famous
for the extraordinary concourse of pilgrims that resort thither to
visit the body of St. James, which is kept with great respect in the
stately cathedral. F. Cuper the Bollandist proves the truth of the
tradition of the Spanish church concerning the body of St. James
having been translated to Compostella, and gives authentic histories
of many miracles wrought through his intercession, and of several
apparitions by which he visibly protected the armies of a Christian
against the Moors in that kingdom.[290] The military order of St.
James, surnamed the Noble, was instituted by Ferdinand II. in 1175.
* * * * *
The Church, by the martyrdom of St. James, lost in her infancy one
of her main pillars; but God was pleased that his name should be
glorified by so illustrious a testimony, and that it should appear
he was the immediate supporter and defender of his Church. For when
it was deprived of its chief members and pastors, it remained no
less firm than before; and even grew and gathered strength from the
most violent persecutions. The apostle with confidence committed
his tender flock to God, and commended to them his own work, whilst
he rejoiced to go to his Redeemer, and to give his life for him. We
all meet with trials. But can we fear or hesitate to drink a cup
presented to us by the hand of God, and which our Lord and Captain,
by free choice, and out of pure love, was pleased himself to drink
first for our sake? He asks us whether we can drink of his cup, he
encourages us by setting before our eyes the glory of heaven, and
he invites us by his own divine example. Let us humbly implore his
grace, without which we can do nothing, and take with joy this cup of
salvation, which he presents us with his divine hand.