Feast 25 July
Apostle. Son of Zebedee. Compostela’s man.
Sacred art
The portrait kept with St. James the Greater is the image this library has of James. The honour goes to the person, and through the person to God. It is not a machine, and it is not a substitute for the life written below.
Killed by Herod Agrippa, Acts 12. Spain’s tradition puts his body at Santiago. The Camino is his long afterlife.
If it belongs to James, it is here, with a door back into the story.
A high mountain (traditionally Tabor)c. AD 32
Peter, James, and John see Jesus’ face shine like the sun, Moses and Elijah speaking with him, a bright cloud, and the Father’s voice. A glimpse of glory before the cross.
Jerusalemc. AD 33
On the third day Jesus rose from the dead. This is not one Catholic miracle among others. It is the reason there is a Church, a Gospel, or any later sign worth hearing.
Road to Damascusc. AD 34
A persecutor of the Church is thrown down by a light and a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” The risen Jesus makes an apostle out of an enemy.
Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza)Tradition: 12 January AD 40
Spain’s founding Marian story: the Virgin, while still living in Jerusalem, appears to the Apostle James on the Ebro and leaves a jasper pillar. A small statue of mother and child stands on that column in Zaragoza. A basilica stands around it. It is apostolic legend, loved, not historically proved. The photograph is this statue on this pillar — not any other Madonna.
O Cebreiro, GaliciaAbout 1300
In a snowstorm a peasant came to Mass. The priest doubted it was worth consecrating for one man. The Host became flesh and the wine blood. The chalice and paten are still in the church on the pass.
