From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
July 24, 2025
July 25 is the feast day of the apostle Saint James, the brother of Saint John. To distinguish him from the other apostle of the same name, he often called “the great(er),” though it is not known whether that was because he was older or taller (or for some other reason). His parents were Zebedee and Salome. His father appears to have been a successful fisherman on the Sea of Galilee and his mother is thought to have been the sister of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. He was the first apostle to be martyred, in 44 A.D., when he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa (see Acts 12). Together with his brother, John, and Simon Peter, he is portrayed in the Gospels as especially associated with Jesus at some of the most significant moments of his ministry, e.g., the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead, and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.
This same apostle, commonly called Santiago (derived from the Latin Santi Jacobi), is famously known as the patron saint of Spain, and each year, hundreds of thousands embark on one of the many pilgrim routes to his shrine at Compostela, in Galicia, Spain.
When the feast day falls on a Sunday, by papal designation, all of Spain celebrates a Holy Year in honor of the saint and a special Holy Year door is opened for the pilgrims who come to his tomb.
The association of the apostle with Spain is predicated on two presuppositions: that he journeyed in and evangelized throughout present-day Spain (then Hispania, part of the Roman empire) prior to his death in Jerusalem, and secondly, that disciples (and/or angels) brought his decapitated body back to Spain after his death. (His head is venerated by the Armenian Christians at their cathedral in Jerusalem, which by their tradition marks the spot where he was executed).
In Galicia, longstanding tradition indicates that the long-lost remains of the apostle were miraculously rediscovered in the ninth century. The great cathedral-basilica built at Compostela (1075-1211) to mark the burial site of the apostle became one of the most important and popular pilgrimage sites of the Middle Ages.
Numerous books and websites are available to orient prospective pilgrims and interested readers along the many paths to the shrine. For example:
https://inhisname.com/search?q=camino+santiago&options%5Bprefix%5D=last
