Saint James, Apostle

James, son of Zebedee and brother of the apostle John, was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called them both; Jesus named the brothers “sons of thunder.” With Peter and John he witnessed the Transfiguration and the prayer in Gethsemane. The Acts of the Apostles tells that King Herod Agrippa I had him put to death by the sword, about 44: he was the first of the Twelve to die a martyr.

A later tradition holds that he had preached in Spain, and that his body was brought to Galicia, where his tomb was discovered in the 9th century at Compostela. Santiago de Compostela became one of the great pilgrimage sites of Christendom, and he is the patron of Spain. He is called “the Greater” to distinguish him from the other apostle James.