Although he is often referred to in the Gospels, and was evidently the constant companion of the Lord, little is known of the life of St. James the Elder, so called to distinguish him from the other disciple of the same name. He was the son of Zebedee, the fisherman, and the brother of St. John the Evangelist. His mother Salome is supposed to have been the sister of the Virgin Mary, and, in any case, he and St. John were generally believed to be near relations of Christ. He was called to be a follower of the Master on the same day as St. Peter and St. Andrew, for Jesus, after telling them that they should be fishers of men, passed on along the shores of the lake, and found James and John, with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets in their boat. His summons to them was immediately obeyed; and that their parents also believed in Christ as the Messiah is implied in the further narrative of their experiences. Salome, indeed, was convinced that the kingdom the Lord was about to found was a temporal one and made the bold request that her sons might have places of honor in it. The reproof she then received was evidently not fully understood by her; but her sons took its meaning to heart at once, for they eagerly protested their readiness to drink of their Master’s cup of agony, whether they shared in His glory or not.
St. James the Elder seem to have been held in special esteem by the Lord, for he was with Him on many of the most important occasions of His ministry. He, St. Peter and St. John, were the only three privileged to witness the Transfiguration, and be was present at the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead and the restoration to health of St. Peter’s mother-in-law. When Christ ordained the twelve who were to go forth to preach His Gospel, St. James and St. John were bracketed together next to St. Peter, and the Master gave to them the significant surname of Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, probably in allusion to the incident which took place on the way up to Jerusalem, when the sons of Zebedee wished Him to call down fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans.
Beyond the fact stated in the Acts of the Apostles that Herod slew him with the sword, absolutely nothing is known of the history of St. James the Elder after the ascension of Christ; but the legends concerning him are numerous, quaint, and most firmly rooted in popular belief, especially in Spain, where, under the name of St. Jago, or Santiago, St. James is reverenced as the patron Saint and the worker of many miracles.
It is generally believed that St. James left Jerusalem after the death of St. Stephen, and did not return there again until ten years later, when he met his own tragic fate. According to tradition, his martyrdom was the immediate result of the rage his preaching in the synagogue excited amongst the Jews. One day, it is said, a scribe named Josias, who was amongst the audience listening to the impassioned eloquence of the Apostle, suddenly sprang upon him, threw a rope round his neck, and dragged him to the ground. Other Jews then rushed forward, and the Apostle, securely bound, was carried before Herod Agrippa, who, only too glad of an excuse to get rid of him, at once condemned him to be beheaded. Josias, who had acted as accuser, joyfully accompanied the soldiers who led the martyr forth to suffer without the city, and as the melancholy procession went along, a man, paralyzed from his birth, cried aloud to St James to heal him. The Apostle did so with a word, a miracle which so impressed Josias that be began to wonder whether, after all, he had done well in the matter. His doubts were presently confirmed by the wonderful dignity and gentleness of the condemned man’s bearing, and when St. James turned and looked on him he could refrain no longer, but fell on his knees, entreating forgiveness. It was granted at once, and Josias then begged to be baptized. The soldiers themselves were touched at the extraordinary scene and on their prisoner asking for a cup of water, it was brought to him at once. He received Josias into the church, giving him the kiss of peace with the benediction ‘Pax vobis,’ still in use amongst Christians. Then the procession was re-formed, the new convert walking beside the prisoner, and the two were beheaded together, for in those days the public profession of Christianity was often at once punished by death. In another version of the same story, it is one of the soldiers of the guard who goes through the experiences of Josias, but otherwise the legend does not vary. What became of the body of the Saint after death is not known, but it is supposed to have been buried first at Jerusalem, and later removed to Spain.
According to a legend current amongst the Spaniards, St. Tames the Elder, who is by them considered no mere fisherman, but a great nobleman of Galilee, owner of all the boats on the Lake of Gennesaret, spent the greater part of his life after our Lord’s death in their country. A big stone is still shown at El Padron as the very boat in which he arrived, driven out of his course by a storm. He had at first very little success in the strange land, for he could not speak the language of the people, who were, moreover, exceptionally ignorant and prejudiced. He was beginning to lose heart, when one day, as he stood on the banks of the river Ebro with a few followers, the Blessed Virgin herself appeared to him, resting on a gleaming column of jasper and surrounded by angels. St. James fell on his knees, hiding his face, for he was unable to bear the radiance emanating from the beautiful vision. Then a voice was heard bidding him build a church on that very spot in honor of the Mother of the Lord, who promised that ere long the whole of Saragossa would be converted to the true faith. This command was of course obeyed, and, although the church built by St. Tames cannot now be identified, the actual pillar of jasper on which the Virgin appeared is said to be preserved in the Cathedral of Saragossa, and is still the goal of many pilgrimages.
The legend adds that after this the difficulties of St. James entirely vanished away ; he was able to make the people understand him, and thousands flocked to listen to his sermons. Later, he returned to Judea, and there contended for the faith, putting to shame a certain wicked magician named Hermogenes, who did all he could to destroy the credit of the Apostle.
This Hermogenes had a favorite pupil, or, rather, accomplice, named Philetus, who was as clever as his master in the lack art, and he was sent to challenge St James to perform greater miracles than could the magician. The result was exactly the reverse of what the sorcerer had hoped, for Philetus was converted to Christianity, and, returning to his master, told him he would work for him no more. Hermogenes, in a terrible rage, cursed him, and by his wicked arts paralyzed him, so that he could move neither hand nor foot, crying, ‘Let us see if thy new master can save thee!’ Philetus, not a whit dismayed, prayed one of the bystanders to fetch St. James, who merely gave his cloak to the messenger, telling him to fling it over the sufferer. Directly the cloak touched Philetus the spell was broken, and, springing to his feet, he hastened to thank his deliverer. Once more the magician put out all his evil power and sent demons to seize the Apostle and his disciple, but lo! just as all seemed over with them, angels came to the rescue, released the Christians, and commanded the demons to bring Hermogenes bound to St. James. They obeyed, laid the magician on the ground before the Saint, and told him he could now fully wreak his revenge. But St. James rebuked them, set free the sorcerer with a word, and so touched his heart by his forbearance that be became henceforth one of bis most devoted followers.
After the death of St. James, the Spanish account of which agrees fairly well with that generally accepted by the Church, it is related that the body, which the disciples dared not bury for fear of the Jews, was taken away by angels and placed on board a ship at Joppa, which sailed direct to Iria Flavia, the present El Padron, a port on the coast of Spain. There the celestial crew landed, and placed their sacred charge upon a great stone, which at its touch became as pliant as wax, closing of itself about the body like a coffin. The ship and sailors then disappeared, but certain peasants had witnessed the extraordinary occurrence, and the story told by them reached the ears of the Queen of the country, who was very angry, for she at once guessed the truth: that St. James had returned to rest in her land, and she foresaw that even in death his power would be greater than her own. She gave orders, therefore, that wild balls should be harnessed to a car, and the miraculously formed coffin placed on it. This was done; the bulls were released, and it was expected that they would soon dash their burden to pieces. Amongst the spectators, however, were some Christians, who at the critical moment made the sign of the Cross : the wild creatures became as lambs, and drew the body of the Saint straight to the gates of the Queen’s palace, where they halted. This convinced the wicked woman of her sin. She repented, and had the coffin reverently buried, building a beautiful church above it. Exactly where this church was the legend does not say, and for centuries the spot where St. James was buried was unknown. In 835, however, the secret is said to have been revealed in a vision to the Bishop of Ilia by means of a star, and the sacred relic, after being duly identified, was re-interred with great pomp four miles from El Padron, at what is now known as Santiago de Compostella, Compostella signifying ‘The field of a star.’ Here, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, arose the fine Romanesque Cathedral beneath which it was affirmed by Pope Leo XIII., as recently as 1884, that the body of St. James still rests.
As a result of the wonderful miracles performed at the shrine of St. James, he became the patron Saint not only of Galicia, but of the whole of Spain. The great military order of San Jago, justly surnamed the Noble, was founded in bis honor, and quickly became one of the greatest and wealthiest institutions in Spain. All through the long straggle of the Spaniards against the Moors, St. James is supposed to have constantly intervened in favor of the former, even descending from heaven in person to aid them when things were going against them in battle. One of the first and most remarkable of the apparitions of the patron Saint is said to have taken place at Clavigo, in 989, when King Ramirez had been defeated by Abdurahman, and forced to retire before the furious onslaught of his enemies. Night had fallen on the stricken field, and the Spanish monarch, broken-hearted at his failure, bad sunk into an uneasy sleep in his tent, when he was suddenly aroused by the sense that be was no longer alone. By his bed stood St. Jago, ho in a clear voice told him to be of good cheer, for tomorrow the tide of fate would turn, and he himself would be with him in the struggle. The King at once summoned a council of war, told bis generals what he had seen, and ordered preparations to be made to renew the fight in the morning. Filled with fresh hope, the Spanish troops were awaiting the order to charge when St. Jago appeared before them, mounted on a beautiful white horse, and brandishing a sword above his head. This was no fleeting vision; the Saint led on the Christians himself, and won for them a glorious victory, slaying hundreds of Moors with his own hand. Henceforth the cry of ‘Santiago to the rescue!’ was always responded to, and it has ever since been the rallying shout of Spanish soldiers.
On account partly of his own supposed journey to Spain and partly because of the immense number of pilgrims who flocked to his shrine, St. James the Great is constantly associated in art with the various attributes of a pilgrim, namely, the staff, the scallop-shell, the broad-brimmed hat, the long cloak with a cape, the wallet and the water-bottle or gourd. Examples occur, as in the Cathedral of Chartres, of representations of St. James in which he is dressed entirely in shells, and his mantle is often covered with them. The scallop-shell became known as the comb of St. James, but the reason for the association of a shell with a pilgrim has never been determined, though it is probably because it is only found on the seashore. Many leaden figures of very early date, some of which have been reproduced by James Forgeais in his ‘Plombs histories trouves dans la Seine,’ have been found of St. James with his shell, and the same author gives a very remarkable instance of a representation of the Saint, in which the aureole about his head is composed of alternate staves and gourds.
When St. James appears, not as a pilgrim, but as the all-conquering patron Saint of Spain, or, as he is lovingly called by the Spaniards, ‘El Matamaro,’ the Slayer of the Moors, he presents a very different appearance. Mounted on a magnificent white charger with flowing mane, he is galloping over the dead and dying Moors. Sometimes he wears a quantity of flowing drapery; more rarely he is in full armor. In either case he brandishes a sword in one hand and flourishes a banner in the other, the latter bearing, as a rule, the national emblem of the long-shafted cross known as that of Calatrava. This banner became, as time went on, so identified with the patron Saint, that it was often spoken of as that of St. James, and Spanish monarchs prided themselves on being the ensign-bearers of the Apostle. They also claimed to receive knighthood from his hand alone, and to meet their pious desire the arm of the statue of the Saint was made to move up and down by a mechanical contrivance, so as to give the accolade to the kneeling aspirant.
Now and then a bunch of keys is given to St. James, in reference to his having intervened to win back Coimbra for Ferdinand I. at the beginning of the eleventh century. A certain Bishop of foreign birth, it is said, reproached his people for looking upon St. James more as a warrior than as a teacher of Christian truth, and the Apostle himself appeared to him in a dream to reprove him for what was looked upon as a dangerous heresy. Mounted on his white horse, he held some keys before the eyes of the astonished Bishop, and with the words, ‘I am going to Coimbra, and shall deliver that town to-morrow into the hands of Don Fernando,’ he disappeared.
The book, the emblem of his position as a preacher, is, of course, one of the emblems of St. James, and was formerly supposed to have reference to the epistle bearing his name, which is now, however, attributed to James, one of the brethren of the Lord. Occasionally, too, St. James the Elder holds a sword, in reference to the instrument of his death, and in certain instances, as in the Greek Menology, and in the engravings on the bronze door of the old Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, the place of the sword is taken by a little dagger or poniard, shaped rather like a pair of scissors, which, according to a Greek tradition, was used in decapitation, the jugular vein being pierced with it.
The clause of the Creed generally attributed to St. James the Elder, ‘Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,’ is but rarely associated with him in art, and when amongst the other Apostles he is to be recognized, as a rule, by the place he occupies, and by bis resemblance in face and figure to Christ, though that resemblance is not so great as in the case of his namesake, St. James the Less. His hair is long and parted in the middle, and he wears a short, pointed beard.
St. James the Elder is also constantly associated with an image of the Virgin, on a pillar, in reference to her apparition to him on the banks of the Ebro, and he is also sometimes seen upholding a man who has been hanged, thus preventing strangulation. The latter representation, however, really embodies a popular error, the misappropriation of a legend belonging by prior right to St. Dominick de la Calzada, a hermit of the twelfth century.
A very interesting representation of St. James the Elder is that on a standard painted by Andrea del Sarto for a church in Florence, and now in the Uffizi Gallery, in which the pilgrim Saint is caressing one chorister, and another stands by with a book. Titian, Ribera, Rubens, and Albert Dhrer have also well interpreted his character, and of the few devotional subjects in which he is introduced other than those already referred to in the chapter on the Apostles, may be mentioned the twelfth-century mosaic of the ‘Madonna, with Saints John, James, Peter, and Andrew,’ in S. Francesca Romana, Rome, and the great triptych by Hans Memlinc, now in the Hospital of St. John, Bruges, on the right shutter of which St James the Elder appears as a pilgrim.
In the Church of the Eremitani at Padua the whole story of the life of St. James the Elder, with its supplementary legends, is graphically told in a series of frescoes by Andrea Mantegna and an unknown master, including the Overthrow of Hermogenes, the Martyrdom of the Apostle, the Arrival of the body on the coast of Spain, the Wild Bull episode at the burial, and the Apparition of the Saint to King Ramirez. In the Church of SS. Biagio e Girolamo at Forli are frescoes of the history of St. James by Palmezzano; and in the Venice Academy is a very fine ’Calling of the Sons of Zebedee’ by Marco Basaiti, in which St. James kneels at the feet of the Master, and St. John awaits his turn to receive the blessing.
Adapted from: The Saints in Christian Art: The Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints, By Mrs. Arthur Bell, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1901)