On Tuesday, July 22, we celebrated the feast day of St Mary Magdalene, whom Thomas Aquinas named “the apostle to the apostles” for the way she was the first person to witness the resurrected Jesus and to announce the news of his resurrection to the other apostles. Today, July 25, we celebrate the feast day of St James the Greater. To distinguish between the two apostles named James, one was labeled the Greater and the other the Lesser. James the Greater was the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, another of the apostles. It is possible the James’ mother, Mary of Salome, was the mother of the Virgin Mary, so James may have been Jesus’ first cousin. We hear from James’ mother in our Gospel today, as she wants Jesus to put her sons in places of honor when he assumes the throne of his eternal kingdom.
James became a prominent leader in the Early Church. He was sent to Spain as a missionary, where his tomb has been one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in the world since the early 9th century when his remains were rediscovered by a hermit. The city that developed around his tomb is named after him, Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage of St James is affectionately referred to as the Camino. The first reported appearance of Mary, which happened while she was still alive, took place in the city of Zaragoza, when she appeared to St James to encourage him in the midst of his missionary work in Spain. The site of that appearance is one of the largest churches in Spain, Our Lady of the Pilar. James is recorded as being the first apostle to be put to death as a martyr for the faith, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. More than a half million people will hike the pilgrimage route of St James this year in Spain. Through his witness and through his pilgrimage, James’ evangelization efforts in the modern world still bear a lot of fruit. May we unite our prayers with the prayers of St James the Greater today on his feast day.
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