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The saints

St. James the Greater

One of the Sons of Thunder, first of the apostles to die for Jesus.

Feast: 25 July · died about 44 · The early Church · Galilee, Jerusalem and Compostela, Spain

Read the story 1 min read
Painting of St. James the Greater on a gold background, holding a pilgrim’s staff and a scallop shell.

Unknown author, 1475. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr.

Home / The saints / St. James the Greater

The Sea of Galilee, then Jerusalem

James and his brother John were mending nets with their father Zebedee when Jesus called them.1

They left the boat and their father and went after Him.2

Jesus nicknamed the brothers Sons of Thunder, and they earned it.

Patron of Spain5; laborers5; Chile and Nicaragua5

01St. James the Greater

Thunder learns

They once wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village that would not welcome Jesus, and He rebuked them.3

Their mother asked for the best seats in the kingdom for them, and Jesus asked if they could drink His cup.4

02St. James the Greater

He drank the cup

James was with Peter and John at the Transfiguration and in Gethsemane.5

King Herod Agrippa had him killed with the sword, the first apostle martyred.6

Pilgrims have walked to his shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Spain for over a thousand years.5

Live it this week

Walk a pilgrimage, even a short one

Millions have walked the road to James’s shrine. This week, walk to a church instead of driving (or park far away), pray a decade of the Rosary on the way, and offer the walk for someone.

Notes

How we know · 6 sources for this page
  1. Mark 1:19, World English Bible. read the chapter
  2. Mark 1:20, World English Bible. read the chapter
  3. Luke 9:54, World English Bible. read the chapter
  4. Matthew 20:22, World English Bible. read the chapter
  5. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint James”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  6. Acts 12:2, World English Bible. read the chapter

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.