Saint James the Greater

James, son of Zebedee and Salome, was the brother of John. He is called the Greater to tell him apart from the other apostle with the same name. He was on the shore of the lake with his father when Jesus called them, and they left their nets. Jesus nicknamed him and his brother Boanerges, “sons of thunder,” and reading the Gospels you can see why: they’re the ones who want to call down fire on a village that won’t welcome them, and the ones who get their mother to ask for the best seats in the kingdom. He was one of the three closest to Jesus — with Peter and John — and was there at the Transfiguration and at the agony in Gethsemane. The Acts of the Apostles says he was the first of the Twelve to die: beheaded on the orders of Herod Agrippa I, around the year 44. The rest is the most extraordinary story a tomb has ever had. In the ninth century, in Galicia, a grave was found that was said to be his; the place took the name Campus Stellae, Compostela. That is where the Way began: for a thousand years, millions of people have crossed Europe on foot to get there, and they still do. Its symbol is the scallop shell. In Spain they call him Santiago, and in Italy his name has lived on in a thousand towns. If your name is James, today is your name day.