St. James the Apostle
His name was Yaakov or
Jacob Bar-Zebdi but he is better known as James the son of Zebedee, St. James,
James the Major (to differentiate him from the other Apostle James, the son of
Alphaeus named Minor) or Santiago in Spain. According to Christian stories, he
was born around 5 BC in Galilee, the son of Zebedee and Mary Salome and was the
older brother of John, the apostle. Mark tells us that Jesus nicknamed the two
brothers “boanergués”, meaning the "sons of thunder". The two brothers
were fishermen, and it was during their work on the Gennesaret Lake that they were called by
Jesus of Nazareth to follow him. They were among his first disciples and most
appreciated by him.
James was present in the
most important episodes recounted in the Gospels. He was one of the three
apostles who witnessed the transfiguration (metamorphosis) of Jesus, when he
transforms to show his divine nature between the prophets Moses and Elijah. He
was also witness to the prayer in the Olive Garden with Peter and his brother.
After the resurrection he was in the small group who saw Jesus at the Lake
Tiberias and participated in the miraculous catch of fish. The Acts of the
Apostles tells how he received the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire
during the Pentecost (about AD 33). It is then that he took his stick and boat,
and set off to the West to evangelize it.
According to the legend,
James crossed the Mediterranean to preach Christianity in Roman Hispania, the
Iberian Peninsula. Around the year 650, Bishop Isidore of Seville wrote in his
De Ortu and Obitu Patrum Sanctorum, "James, son of Zebedee and brother of
John [...] preached the Gospel in Hispania, in the western regions, and spread
the light of his preaching to the ends of the earth. " These ends of the earth
are the Finisterre (Finis Terrae), the most western cape of Galicia.
Shortly after this episode,
he decided to return to Jerusalem, leaving his seven disciples the task of
continuing his work. His wish was to see the living Virgin Mary once more.
He continued to preach in
Judea. The Acts of the Apostles tells of a sermon around the year 44 A.C., he was taken prisoner
by Herodes Agrippa and tortured
to death. He became one of the first
Christian martyrs. The
king forbid to bury him, but in the night Jacob's disciples stole the body and
brought him, in a sarcophagus of marble, on board of a small boat. The current
of the sea drove the boat to the Spanish coast, into the port of the Roman
province's capital, Iria Flavia.
Here the Apostle was buried at a secret place in a wood.
Centuries later, in 813,
the hermit Pelayo listened
music in that wood and saw a shining. For this shining the place was called, in
Latin, "Campus Stellae", field
of the star, name that was lateron turned into Compostela.
Bishop Teodomiro, who received
notice of that event, instituted an investigation, and so the tomb of the
Apostle was discovered. King Alphonse
II declared Saint James the patron of his empire and had built a chapel
at that place. It is reported that from then on Saint James did several
miracles, even that he fought side to side with King Ramiro I in the decisive battle against the Moors.
More and more pilgrims followed the way of Santiago, the "Way of Saint
James", and the original chapel soon became the cathedral of the new settlement
Santiago de Compostela
In 12th and 13th
century the town had its greatest importance, and Pope Alexander III
declared it a Holy Town, like Rome and Jerusalem. Pope Calixto II
declared that the pilgrims who went to Santiago in a Holy Year should be
free of all their sins. El Año Santo (Holy Year) is celebrated each time
when the Apostol's day (July, 25)
