
St. James, Apostle
July 25, 2024
An event every year that begins at 12:00 am on day 25 of July, repeating indefinitely
Known as the Greater in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, St. James is our Lord’s cousin and St. John’s brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in 42 or 43 on the orders of Herod Agrippa. His remains are in Compostella, Spain. The pilgrimage of St. James of Compostella in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims’ hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass.