Feast Day of St. James the Greater

ExecutedToday.com ^ | July 25, 2013 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

It’s a big day today in the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela, because the twenty-fifth of July is the feast of its patron and namesake* St. James the Great.

One of the original Apostles (literally, he and his brother John are the first two whom Jesus calls in the Gospels), James also had the distinction of apparently being the first Apostle to die for Christ.** His execution at the hands of Herod Agrippa† is reported in Acts 12:2;‡ it’s the only apostolic execution in the New Testament.

This, of course, occurred on the southeastern fringe of the Mediterranean, so it’s a wonder that James’s bones came to repose at a Spanish city literally situated on Finisterre, the far western edge of the world as far as Europeans saw it. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

It’s certainly plausible — though impossible to substantiate — that James evangelized in Spain prior to his execution. The whole Mediterranean was a Roman lake. More towards the outlandish is the patriotic story (pdf) that James’s relics were miraculously discovered there in 813 at the moment when Muslim expansion into Iberia gave the hard-pressed Christian kingdoms the greatest possible need for a morale boost.§

James became for those souls Saint James Matamoros, Moor-slayer, and started turning the tide of fictional battles and blessing his own very real chivalric order....

[Chode]

[DannyTN]

"...and started turning the tide of fictional battles...

What?

Nevermind let's feast!!!

[firebrand]

"But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors."

Paul says it too, to have not respect of persons.

In more modern words, have respect for everyone, regardless of their station in life, their usefulness to you, or anything else. If you wouldn't say it to Queen Elizabeth, don't say to anyone.

[DPMD]

Patron Saint of small cheese slices, St. James the Grater.