St. James, Apostle

St. James was born in Galilee, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John (Matt. 4:21). His mother may have been the Salome mentioned in Mark (Mk. 15:40) and Matthew (Mt. 27:56). James was a fisherman, as were his father and brother, and it was while he was preparing his nets that our Lord called him to follow him (Matt. 4:21–22). Our Lord nicknamed the brothers Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, probably because both had manifested their tempers; when a certain Samaritan village refused to accept Jesus and his teaching, the brothers suggested that they should call down fire from Heaven and destroy it (Luke 9:51–56). Together with Peter and John, he witnessed two important moments in our Lord’s life: the transfiguration on Mount Tabor (Mark 9:2–8) and the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32–42). Tradition maintains that after Pentecost James evangelized Samaria and Judea, and even traveled as far as Spain. He was arrested and beheaded by order of Herod Agrippa I in 44 (Acts 12:1–2), and supposedly he was buried in Jerusalem. James was the first of the apostles to die for Christ, thereby making good his “We can,” when our Lord, in today’s Gospel (Matt. 20:20–28), asks him and John: “Can you drink of the cup as I am to drink of?” To distinguish him from the other James, also an apostle, he is often called “the Greater,” to indicate either that he was called by our Lord before the other or that he was the elder.