25 July: St James the Greater

Today is the feast day of St. James the Greater Apostle, brother of St John. Here are 10 things you might not know about him.

1. He is referred to as St James the Greater to distinguish him from the other apostle whose name was James (James the Less). That means he was probably older or taller than the other James, rather than less important.
2. His parents were Zebedee and Salome and his brother was the apostle John. According to one legend, Salome asked Jesus to seat her sons by His side in Heaven.
3. James is traditionally the first apostle to be martyred. The story is told in The Acts of the Apostles and states that King Herod had him beheaded with a sword. Some scholars suggest that this was because of his temper, the same temper that caused Jesus to call him and John "Sons of Thunder".
4. He is the patron of veterinarians, equestrians, furriers, tanners, pharmacists, Oyster fishers and woodcarvers. Places claiming him as their patron saint include Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Spain. The national day of Galicia is celebrated on 25 July, as St James is its patron saint.
5. His head, chopped off by order of King Herod, is buried under the altar of the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of St. James in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem, which is said to be the site of his martyrdom.
6. The rest of him is buried in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. There is some controversy about this, since the Bible story suggests he never evangelised anywhere other than the Holy Land. Some legends suggest he did preach in Spain, too, and that when he died his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia. Or, according to other legends, his body was taken by angels and put in a boat which sailed itself to Iberia.
7. Thousands of pilgrims make their way to his grave at Santiago de Compostela every year. The name Santiago is derived from the Latin Sanctu Iacobu, "Saint James". The place name San Diego is another derivative. 237,886 pilgrims registered in 2014 as having completed the pilgrimage.
8. Pilgrims walking to the shrine often wear scallop or cockle shell symbols on their clothing, because the shell is the emblem of St James. That's also why the word for scallops in several European languages translates as "mollusk of St James" or "shell of St James"). Examples are the French coquille St. Jacques, German Jakobsmuschel and the Dutch Jacobs schelp.
9. Mormons believe that James was resurrected along with Peter and John, and was one of the three who visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in 1829 to restore the authority of the priesthood on Earth.
10. While there isn't a gospel of St James in the Bible, the New Testament apocrypha has a Secret Book of James that is said to be the secret teachings of Jesus to Peter and James. A major theme of these teachings is that suffering is inevitable.