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James the Great
James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Great (in Ancient Greek: Ἰάκωβος, Ἰákobos), was, according to various New Testament texts (the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles), one of the most prominent apostles of Jesus of Nazareth.
He is known in Christian tradition as James the Great to distinguish him from another member of the group of the Twelve, James the Less.
Probably born in Bethsaida (Galilee), he was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of John. James, son of Zebedee, belonged to the so-called "inner circle" of Jesus, which was with him on special occasions: at the raising of the daughter of Jairus, at the Transfiguration, and in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus withdrew to pray in agony in the face of his coming passion and death. He was also a privileged witness of the appearances of the risen Jesus and of the miraculous catch of fish on the Sea of Tiberias. According to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Pentecost found James in prayerful waiting, always as one of the foremost figures of the first Christian community, together with Simon Peter and John.
He died at the hands of Herod Agrippa I in Jerusalem between the years 41 and 44 AD.
James the Great is the Patron saint of Spain.
Life
Biblical data
He was the son of Zebedee (cf. Matthew 4:21) and had a brother named John, who would likewise be a disciple of Jesus (cf. ibid.). His mother Salome probably also followed Jesus (cf. Matthew 20:20). Their master Jesus gave them the surname "Boanerges" (Mark 3:17), which, as the same evangelist states, meant "sons of thunder" because of their impetuous character; the episode narrated by Luke, in which James and his brother John wish to call upon God to consume a city of Samaritans with fire (Luke 9:54), does justice to this name. James was one of the first to receive the call of Jesus, when he was fishing in the lake of Gennesaret with his brother (Mark 1:19). Later he would be called to form part of the more restricted group of the Twelve (cf. Matthew 10:3). Together with his brother John and with Simon Peter, he enjoyed a privileged relationship with Jesus: he was an eyewitness of the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:21–43), of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9) and of the prayer in the Garden of Olives (Mark 14:33). He likewise formed part of the restricted group of disciples who witnessed the last sign performed by the already risen Jesus: his appearance on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias and the miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1–8). The Acts of the Apostles records his presence in the Upper Room in prayerful waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:13). James was condemned to death and beheaded on the orders of the King of Judea, Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:2). From this information the death of James can be dated to between the years 41 and 44, since those were the years in which Agrippa I was King of Judea.
Data from medieval tradition
According to a medieval tradition, after Pentecost (around AD 33), when the apostles were sent out to preach, James would have crossed the Mediterranean Sea and landed to preach the Gospel in Hispania (present-day Spain and Portugal). According to some accounts, his preaching would have begun in Gallaecia, which he would have reached after passing the Pillars of Hercules. According to the Cádiz writer Fray Gerónimo de la Concepción, it was James who consecrated the Temple of Hercules to Saint Peter (on the islet of Sancti Petri). He continued skirting Baetica and the uninhabited coast of Portugal; other traditions claim his arrival at Tarraco and his journey through the valley of the Ebro, until joining the Roman road that ran along the foothills of the Cantabrian Mountains and ended in present-day A Coruña. A third version posits his arrival at Carthago Nova (present-day Cartagena, through the Santa Lucía neighborhood), from where he would have set out northward. This tradition makes James the protecting patron saint of Spain.
In any case, the tradition of the evangelization by the Apostle James indicates that he made some disciples, and seven of them were the ones who continued the work of evangelization once James returned to Jerusalem. To that end they went to Rome and were ordained bishops by Saint Peter. They are the seven Apostolic Men. The tradition of the Apostolic Men places them alongside James in Zaragoza when the Virgin Mary appeared on a pillar.
According to Christian tradition, around the year 40, on January 2, the Virgin Mary appeared to James the Great in Caesaraugusta. Mary came to Zaragoza "in mortal flesh"—long before her assumption—and as testimony of her visit she would have left a jasper column popularly known as "the Pilar". It is said that James and the first seven converts of the city built a primitive adobe chapel on the bank of the Ebro.
Traditionally, it has been claimed that the remains found in Santiago de Compostela at the beginning of the 9th century belonged to the apostle James, but the lack of a direct analysis of those remains allows the supposition that they may be the remains of Bishop Priscillian, or of another important person from the Roman period.[4] Nevertheless, Pope Leo XIII reaffirmed in 1884, in the form of a Papal Bull, that the remains belonged to the apostle, after ordering an analysis of the remains preserved inside the tomb.
The tradition that places James the Great outside Jerusalem shortly before his martyrdom is recorded in various New Testament apocryphal writings (The Book of the Dormition of Mary, etc.), all of them earlier than the "discovery" of the Tomb of the Apostle. According to these accounts, when Mary sees her death approaching, she receives a visit from the risen Jesus Christ. She asks him to be surrounded by the apostles on the day of her death, but all of them are scattered throughout the world. Jesus Christ grants her wish and allows Mary herself, by means of a miraculous apparition, to notify his disciples. The apparition of Mary to James would have taken place upon a pillar in Caesaraugusta (present-day Zaragoza), a column that is still venerated in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, in the Aragonese capital.
James would have made the whole return journey from Spain to Jerusalem to find Mary, mother of Jesus of Nazareth (since she was still alive there, in the capital of Judea), before her dormition, meeting his death before Herod Agrippa in martyrdom. The legend concludes with two of his disciples, Athanasius and Theodore, having carried his body (preserved in some way) across the Mediterranean Sea in a mythical stone boat and having sailed along the Atlantic coast once again to Galicia, where they would have buried him precisely in Iria Flavia, where Bishop Theodemir found him in the 9th century.
The Tomb of the Apostle
Around the year 813, or 820 according to other sources, in the time of the King of Asturias Alfonso II the Chaste, a Christian hermit named Paio (Pelayo) told the Galician bishop Theodemir, of Iria Flavia (Spain), that he had seen some lights shining over an uninhabited hill. On it they found a tomb, probably of Roman origin, in which lay a beheaded body with its head under its arm. The King ordered a church to be built above the cemetery, the origin of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, an epithet that comes from campus stellae: "field of the stars", owing to the lights that appeared over the cemetery, or else from compositum tellus, that is: "well-disposed ground".[5]
In May 1589, Francis Drake threatened Compostela after landing in A Coruña. The Archbishop, Juan de Sanclemente, agreed with the Cathedral Chapter to hide everything of importance in it. For this reason, the remains were deposited in a hiding place within the apse of the main chapel, behind the altar. These remains were found thirty meters below ground level in the excavations carried out in the Cathedral in 1878 and 1879 by Antonio López Ferreiro. The current layout of the crypt beneath the altar derives from the excavations carried out at the end of the 19th century. The remains were deposited in a silver urn made in 1886 by the Rey Martínez goldsmiths, inside a wooden chest lined with red velvet and with three compartments, for James, Athanasius and Theodore.
In these excavations, there were found, among the remains of a Roman mausoleum, a funerary inscription in Greek, Athanasios martyr, and the remains of three different people: two of middle age and one in the last third of life, which led to their identification with the traditional James and his disciples Athanasius and Theodore. Nevertheless, Pope Leo XIII appointed an extraordinary Congregation to study these remains. The documents sent to Rome, however, did not satisfy him, and he sent Monsignor Agostino Caprara, promoter of the Faith in the process, to Santiago to examine the remains on site and take statements from those who had taken part. Caprara, however, first ordered an analysis of the presumed relic of James venerated in Pistoia, a task entrusted to Doctor Chiapelli, who determined that it was a right mastoid process with traces of coagulated blood, a piece that would have been separated as a result of a beheading.
On June 8, 1884, he arrived in Santiago, and the examination established that one of the three skulls lacked a right mastoid process. The resolution of the Congregation was published on July 25 of the same year, the feast of Saint James. On November 1 of the same year, Leo XIII published the Bull Deus Omnipotens, in which he reviewed the history of the Sanctuary and called for new pilgrimages to Santiago to be undertaken.
However, the chronological dating of the remains still remained to be established, which in the mid-20th century gave rise to critical voices. Thus Claudio Sánchez Albornoz:
...despite all the efforts of the scholarship of yesterday and today, it is not possible, however, to adduce in favor of the presence of James in Spain and of his translation to it a single remote, clear and authoritative piece of evidence. A silence of more than six centuries surrounds the conjectural and implausible arrival of the apostle in the West, and of one to eight centuries the no less conjectural and implausible translatio. Only in the 6th century did the legend of James's preaching in Spain arise among Western Christendom; but it did not reach the Peninsula until the end of the 7th century.
— C. Sánchez Albornoz: "En los albores del culto jacobeo", in Compostellanum 16 (1971) pp. 37–71.
On the one hand, the prior existence of a dolmenic necropolis, and later of a cemetery used in the Roman and Suebian periods, has been documented archaeologically. These discoveries prove that Compostela was a pre-Christian necropolis, but they do not settle the question regarding the tomb of James, whose remains could belong either to the apostle himself (the traffic in relics was beginning to develop in that period) or to any other Christian martyr. It has even been proposed that they are the remains of Priscillian. In 1955 the tomb cover of Theodemir was found near the tomb, which confirms that he wished to be buried at the site of his own discovery.
In 1988, two academicians of the Royal Academy of History, the philologist Isidoro Millán González-Pardo and the archaeologist Antonio Blanco Freijeiro, claimed to have found the inscription martyr and a reference to Athanasius on a stone dated to the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century, which, they maintain, indirectly confirms the presence of the remains of the Apostle at the site.[6]
Archaeological studies show that on the site of the present sanctuary of Compostela there existed, from the 1st century, a small (no more than one hectare) Hispano-Roman settlement next to which there was a cemetery, some of whose gravestones have been found and read. Among them is that of a family called Modesta.[7] One of them, in marble, was found in the old crypt and belongs to a lady of the 2nd century named Atia Modesta.[8]
A study carried out by Enrique Alarcón,[9][10] professor of Philosophy at the University of Navarra, published on June 24, 2011, in the context of the closing of the "Camino de Santiago Chair", expanded in a 2013 study[11] and republished in a volume in collaboration with Piotr Roszak,[12] is based on an epigraphic study of photographic reproductions of the aforementioned inscriptions, since he did not have access to the originals. The professor, whose studies have not been published in archaeology journals, considers that they show evidence of a particular funerary cult of James, at least already in the 2nd century, in the crypt, part of a funerary complex of the Roman lady Atia Modesta, whom Alarcón considers Christian and not pagan as other scholars do.[13][14]
In addition, he claims to have found the inscription Ya'akov (James, in Hebrew), with symbolism characteristic of 1st-century Judeo-Christian funerary aesthetics, analogous to those found in the ossuaries of Dominus Flevit. He adds that one of the inscriptions contains references to the Jewish feast of Shavu'ot with a representation of ritual breads, and indicates that these breads ceased to be used around the year 70 on account of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans, which would make it possible to place the tomb chronologically.[5][15]
Relics
The Monastery of Cañas holds a relic that is supposed to contain the horseshoes of Saint James's horse, which Diego López II de Haro would have collected at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and given to his daughter Urraca Díaz de Haro, the fourth abbess of the monastery.
Saint James against Islam
In the 12th century, the so-called Privilegio de los Votos (Privilege of the Vows) was drawn up in Santiago de Compostela; it attributes to King Ramiro I a victory over the Moors at Clavijo in 844, a victory obtained thanks to an apparition of Saint James. In gratitude, the King would have made the vow that all the inhabitants should pay the Apostle, that is, his sanctuary, an annual sum. According to this same document, the victory at Clavijo put an end to the annual delivery to the enemies of a shameful tribute of one hundred Christian virgins. The first representation of Saint James on horseback, from the beginning of the 13th century in the Compostela cathedral, shows the maidens kneeling before Saint James's horse.
The medieval miles Christi, an infrequent image, became from the second half of the 15th century and throughout the 16th century Santiago Matamoros (Saint James the Moor-slayer), defender of Catholicism against all its enemies: the Turks, the heretics and the pagans, whose bodies or heads roll between the hooves of his horse.
The Way of Saint James
The discovery of the tomb of the Apostle brought the King of Asturias a series of benefits: the bringing together of his territories as a single kingdom, under the special protection of the Apostle, and the Christianization of the ancient "Way of Finisterre", a route traditionally followed by many peoples of Celtic religion to the supposed end of the world. In fact, Gallic pilgrimages toward northwestern Spain have been proven archaeologically, and it can be stated that the Celts—in the first millennium before our era—traveled all over Europe to go to these sites, where they celebrated their marriages and other rites. This pre-Christian way thus became the Way of Saint James or Jacobean Route, and Compostela the third center of medieval pilgrimage, after Rome and Jerusalem.
In the year 1122, Pope Callixtus II instituted and proclaimed that henceforth all years in which the liturgical feast of Saint James, July 25, fell on a Sunday should have the status and privileges of a Jacobean Holy Year.
Festivities in his honor
As Patron of Spain, James the Great (better known as Saint James the Apostle) is also patron of numerous towns and cities that celebrate religious festivities in his honor on July 25. Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña) is the city that organizes the greatest festivities in his honor. During those days the city's cathedral receives the largest influx of pilgrims of the year.
In keeping with his patronage of Spain, James the Great is likewise patron of the Cavalry Branch of the Army. The final phrase of the Anthem of this branch is one of the best known in Spain from the Reconquista:
Likewise, he is the patron of the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia, his feast being celebrated on the National Day of Galicia,[16] every July 25 in the city of Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña).
Besides Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña), other Spanish towns spread throughout the national territory hold celebrations in honor of Saint James the Apostle. Processions, masses and prayers, along with open-air dances, concerts or children's activities, take place, for example, in the town of Albaladejo (Ciudad Real), Navas de Oro (Segovia), Moratones (Zamora) or Santiago de Aravalle (Ávila). He is also patron of the town of Moncada (Valencia) and of numerous towns of the Sierra de Guadarrama, such as Collado Villalba (Madrid), Colmenarejo (Madrid) or Santa María de Robledo (Segovia).
In Ermua (Biscay) he is also patron: the parish church of Saint James the Apostle dates from 1600; it is a beautiful Renaissance building. It is of the single-nave type with three bays and tall side chapels between the buttresses. Opposite the nave there is, in addition, a narrower octagonal main chapel. It is covered by a rib vault and has a choir and two Baroque chapels. The commission to complete the works, which Archbishop Andrés de Orbe y Larreátegui gave to Sebastián de Lecuona, was completed by his brother-in-law Joseph de Zuaznabar. The furnishings reflect the involvement of the wealthy cardinal. Noteworthy are the main altarpiece, the organ, and the private chapel of the archbishop and his tomb. The altarpiece is made of walnut wood, in Baroque style, with Solomonic columns on the sides. In its niches there is a series of polychrome sculptures. The altarpiece is unpolychromed; standing out within it is Saint James riding over the Moors at the Battle of Clavijo. The organ is of the same type as the altarpiece, monumental and without polychromy. There are other small altarpieces of gilded wood in proto-Rococo and Rococo style.
In the Canary Islands, Saint James is patron of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, capital of the island of Tenerife, as well as of the municipality of Santiago del Teide (Santa Cruz de Tenerife). Likewise, the Town of Los Realejos (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), in the north of Tenerife, was placed under the protection of the Apostle from July 25, 1496, when the military phase of the conquest of Tenerife was declared concluded in these lands of the former Menceyato of Taoro; on that same day the church of the Mother Parish Church of the Apostle Saint James was erected, inside which part of an old painted altarpiece depicting the life of the Apostle is preserved, of which three panels survive today, making up the famous Triptych of Saint James, a work from the brush of the distinguished European workshop of the Master of Delft. On the island of Gran Canaria, Saint James is the patron of the municipality of Gáldar (Las Palmas), where the church of the same name is located, which is the first Jacobean seat outside peninsular territory and holds the jubilee graces to celebrate the Jacobean Holy Year with the same privileges as the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It has its own official pilgrim route linking Santiago de Tunte with Santiago de Gáldar (Las Palmas).
America
Argentina
Saint James the Apostle is the patron of Santiago del Estero Province, of Mendoza Province and its capital, where his feast is a provincial holiday and important celebrations are held in his honor. In this city of Cuyo he is also considered a protector against the earthquakes that frequently occur in the region.
In Salta Province, he is patron of the municipalities of Campo Quijano and Isla de Cañas.
Bolivia
James the Great, or Tata Santiago, is venerated in the town of Toro Toro, in Charcas Province, Potosí Department.
Brazil
In the city of São Tiago (Minas Gerais), devotion to the saint has existed since the 18th century. In this small town there is an interesting tradition. On July 25, after the masses and a procession, the faithful receive the imposition of the hat, which remains throughout the year on the head of the two-hundred-year-old image carved in Baroque style. It is also in this city that the devotional route "Caminhos de São Tiago" ends, an adaptation from Minas Gerais inspired by the Compostela route. The route begins in the district of Santa Rita de Ouro Preto and passes through several cities in the region of Rio das Mortes.
Chile
The Apostle James is the patron of the capital city, Santiago de Chile, founded as Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura in 1541, and shares with Our Lady of Mount Carmel the patronage of the country. The coats of arms of the city of Santiago, of the Archdiocese of Santiago and of several communes of the Metropolitan Region bear on their border eight gold shells on a blue field, representing the letters of the Apostle's name. Likewise, he is venerated in other towns and rural localities in the northern and southern parts of the country, where his feast, on July 25, is celebrated with great solemnity. The community of Spanish immigrants from Galicia celebrates its patronal feast with dances and artistic performances at the Estadio Español.
Colombia
The apostle James the Great is the patron saint of the city of Tunja, capital of the Boyacá Department. The cathedral of this city is consecrated to him.
The municipality of Santiago de Tolú, Sucre Department, has James the Great as its patron saint, celebrating every year the novenas and festivities in his honor.
The capital of the Valle del Cauca Department is called Santiago de Cali, in honor of Santiago de Compostela, and its founding date is July 25, 1536.
The city of Rionegro (Antioquia), founded on December 6, 1542, received in 1786 the title of city from King Charles III, who named it City of Santiago de Arma de Rionegro, and an old painting of the Apostle at the Battle of Clavijo was transferred to it; it is preserved today in the museum of the cathedral of Saint Nicholas. Saint James is one of the patron saints of Rionegro, and in his honor the cathedral is decorated with scallop shells in the niches of its main altar.
Costa Rica
Saint James the Apostle is the patron of the city of Cartago, capital of the Province of Nueva Cartago and Costa Rica within the Spanish Empire, and currently capital of the province of the same name. In this city are the ruins of Santiago Apóstol, an old church dedicated to the saint destroyed in the Santa Mónica Earthquake in 1910. In addition, the annexation of the district of Nicoya to Costa Rica is celebrated on this date, which turned out to be a very convenient date for purposes of both religious and political celebration.
Also in Costa Rica there are three churches built for devotion to the apostle James. The first is located in the province of Cartago, the second in the city of Puriscal (fourth canton of San José Capital) and the third in Río Segundo in the province of Alajuela (ninth district of the canton of Alajuela). As a curious anecdote, it may be noted that the first two structures are currently in ruins, owing to various earthquakes. The church of Río Segundo was also destroyed by an earthquake in the 1990s and rebuilt by the community.
Cuba
In this country is the city of Santiago de Cuba, capital of the province of the same name. It was founded on July 25, 1515, and served as the capital of the island for some time. There is also the city of Santiago de Compostela de las Vegas, founded in 1683.
Ecuador
The saint is the official patron of Guayaquil, capital of Guayas Province, since it was named Santiago de Guayaquil in his honor. His festivities are celebrated on July 25. It should be noted that, since the founding of that city was a mystery, it was officially celebrated on the date of its patron. The celebration of the saint was for many years clouded and overshadowed, but now the mystery of its founding has been cleared up. The festivities of the Patron Saint have gained enormous popularity, with large sky-blue-and-white flags adorning the balconies of the city. Many consider that the Guayaquil festivities begin on July 25 and end on August 15, the official date of its founding.
To celebrate the Xacobeo 2021 holy year, on May 10, 2019, a bronze statue of Saint James the Apostle, created by Nixon Córdoba, was unveiled in Guayaquil. The monument highlights the iconography of Saint James the Pilgrim, the importance of the Way of Saint James, and the relations between Ecuador and Spain, to which thousands of Ecuadorians have emigrated since the late nineties. The statue was placed in Plaza España, on the Cerro de Santa Ana, the original site of the city.[18]
Festivities are also held in honor of Saint James the Apostle. One of the most significant is the one held in a canton of Azuay Province called Santiago de Gualaceo. Here, as in countless places around the world, masses, processions, vigils and prayers are held. In this place there are two images of the Patrón Santiago (as the locals call him), which are visited by locals and outsiders alike in the month of July. This celebration is known nationwide and brings together thousands of people who devoutly come to visit the Patrón Santiago.
United States
Puerto Rico
In the state of Puerto Rico, the city of Santiago de Fajardo, in the east of the island, and the municipalities of Guánica and Santa Isabel, both in the south, hold festivities in honor of Saint James the Apostle as patron. All the celebrations take place every July 25, with festivities several days before and after the date. The municipality of Aibonito used to celebrate its patronal festivities in honor of James the Great. This Hispanic religious heritage, which lasted well into the years of the 21st century, is evidenced by the prominent scallop shell that appears in the lower right canton of the municipal coat of arms.
In the northeast of the island, in the municipality of Loíza, the Traditional Festivities of Saint James the Apostle are celebrated. These, which date back to the 17th century, today draw people coming even from abroad. The festivities are held every July 25, and there are generally celebrations several days before and after this date. The coat of arms of this municipality bears, as its only figure, that of Santiago Matamoros. Its striking and peculiar processions bring out, over the course of the festive days, three images of the apostle, each one corresponding to the groups of men, women and children who individually carry it. Hence there he is popularly invoked as Saint James "of the men", "of the women", or "of the children".
Saint James the Apostle is also patron of the Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao. This Diocese established the Camino de Santiago de El Yunque as a faith experience inspired by that of Compostela (Galicia, Spain) and similar to it. Described as a pilgrimage, its starting points are the municipalities of Loíza and Humacao, and it reaches its destination and end point at the sanctuary of Saint James the Apostle, located in the municipality of Luquillo.
Texas
In the state of Texas there is what was the port of Los Brazos de Santiago, which is today the mouth of the navigation channel of the port of Brownsville. Formerly, this natural deepwater port was the port of Matamoros, Mexico, and an important naval base of Mexico. It is located at the southern tip of Padre Island, Texas, some 12 km north of the Río Bravo (Rio Grande). It was named in the times of the conquest of Mexico, but no one knows who gave it the name.
Guatemala
He is patron of the archdiocese and of the city of Antigua Guatemala, currently capital of the Sacatepéquez Department. The original name of this city is Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, and its fair is celebrated in the week of July 25 each year. The coat of arms of Guatemala City includes the Apostle James.
Honduras
The city of Yoro, capital of the department of the same name, has Saint James the Apostle as its patron saint, with his feast on July 25 each year, and he is housed in the city's cathedral. The image of Saint James the Apostle venerated in this city was found in a municipality of this department called Jocón, where they decided to carry it in procession throughout the department of Yoro to raise funds to build a church for it. But on arriving in Yoro and taking it to the cathedral, it was impossible to take it out, since it became heavy and larger. So they decided to keep it as patron of the city. This city is blessed because of it.
Likewise in Lepaterique, in the Francisco Morazán Department, the patronal fair festivity is celebrated in honor of the Apostle Saint James of Lepaterique, who was brought from Spain in times past, filling the whole municipality, which is full of legends and myths, with curiosity. In his commemoration, the Institute of Lepaterique is named Instituto Gubernamental Polivalente Santiago.
On the 25th of every July, in another place in Honduras, the Apostle James is also celebrated in the municipality of Santiago de Puringla, in the department of La Paz.
Mexico
In what was one of the great viceregal centers, he is celebrated in various places. One of them is the municipality of Ayapango, in the State of Mexico, at the old convent of Saint James the Apostle and the parish church that bears the same name. This festivity is celebrated with the representation of the Twelve Peers of France and the dance of the chinelos, and a procession through the town.
He is also celebrated in the town of Santiago Tepopula, in the municipality of Tenango del Aire, State of Mexico, as well as in the town of Quechultenango, seat of the municipality of the same name, in the state of Guerrero. In this place he is represented with a dance called las Cueras, in which, followed by an enormous procession, four of the dancers carry on their shoulders the image in his honor. The festivity begins on July 23, followed by the celebration of the dance of the ocoxúchiltl on the first Sunday of August, in which all the pilgrims dance around the image of Saint James to fulfill their vows.
In the town of Santiago Tilapa, within the municipality of Santiago Tianguistenco, State of Mexico, the traditional muleteers' dance is performed, which represents the activity carried out within the great haciendas from the viceroyalty until the arrival of the railroad in Mexico; on July 24 and 25 the female muleteers come to the parish church to dance, and approximately two weeks later the male muleteers come to dance at the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus, on the Sunday closest to August 6, where they likewise carry as their standard their patron Saint James the Apostle; on May 22 and 23 celebrations are likewise held in his honor, such as the burning of a castillo (fireworks tower) and the traditional toritos.
He is celebrated in Jesús María, seat of the municipality of the same name, in the state of Aguascalientes, with the Feria de los Chicahuales, the second most important in the state, during the second half of July.
James the Great is patron of the city of Santiago de Querétaro, capital of the municipality and of the state of Querétaro. According to legend, the city was founded on July 25, 1531, after a battle between Christianized natives and those who were not, there having been an eclipse during the course of the battle, in which the figure of Santiago Matamoros appeared in the sky. On the site where this miracle took place stand the church and convent of the Holy Cross.
He is also honored in the city of Sahuayo, in the state of Michoacán, where he is venerated by his followers disguised in tlahualiles costumes (defeated warrior, in Nahuatl), dancing through the streets and fighting in a symbolic representation of the Spanish conquest.
Another place where he is venerated is Santiago, seat of the municipality of its name, located in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area, in the state of Nuevo León.
He is honored in Santiago de Anaya, seat of the municipality of the same name, in the state of Hidalgo; as well as in Tecozautla, seat of the municipality of the same name located in the same state. In this latter municipal seat the Feria de la Fruta (Fruit Fair) is held in his honor.
In some regions of the south of the state of Zacatecas, such as Moyahua, Juchipila and Apozol, and part of the state of Jalisco, such as Tonalá, a municipality located in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, he is venerated on his feast day, July 25, in the tradition of the tastoanes, which has been celebrated since the times following the Conquest of the territories of Nueva Galicia, a kingdom of which he was patron.
He is honored in the cities of Compostela and Santiago Ixcuintla, in the state of Nayarit.
In the state of Coahuila he is patron of the cities of Saltillo (the state capital) and Monclova.
He is patron of the city of Santiago Tuxtla, in the state of Veracruz, where he has been celebrated for more than 130 years with traditions such as the Dance of the Blacks, mojigangas, fandango and folk dance contests. Likewise, he forms part of the culture and tradition of some municipalities, such as Ixhuatlán del Café, Coscomatepec and Chocamán, with their traditional Dance of the Santiagos.
In the state of Durango, one of the localities of greatest historical and cultural importance is Mapimí, whose patron is Saint James the Apostle, the Greater. The main church of that locality bears that dedication, a site founded by the order of Ignatian missionaries.
In the city of Silao, in the historic state of Guanajuato, Saint James the Apostle is venerated and the parish church of the municipality bears his name. There are likewise the municipalities of Santiago Maravatío, Valle de Santiago and the municipality of Tarandacuao, in the same state.
In the country's capital itself, Mexico City, three sites stand out that recall the apostle. They are Santiago Tlatelolco, the last focus of indigenous resistance during the conquest of Tenochtitlan, in whose vicinity the tlatoani Cuauhtémoc was captured; the town of Santiago Zapotitlán, in the borough of Tláhuac, where, well into the 21st century, rural and urban customs mingle; and the town of Santiago Acahualtepec, in the borough of Iztapalapa, which has maintained its tradition of celebrating Saint James the Apostle for more than 350 years.
In the state of San Luis Potosí, in Santiago de los Valles, what is now known as Ciudad Valles, there is an old restored Franciscan church. It came to be the Custody of Tampico, which controlled a large expanse in the Huasteca region.
He is one of the patrons of the Franciscan Province of Saints Francis and James in Mexico, which is one of the most important provinces of the Franciscans in the whole world. It exceeds 400 friars distributed in the northeast and west of Mexico, and in other places such as Tivoli, Corsica, Belize, Tlatelolco and southern Texas.
Nicaragua
In the city of Jinotepe, seat of the Carazo Department, Saint James the Apostle is celebrated. His festivity begins on June 29 with the departure of the Demanda Mayor, a tour of Saint James through the rural communities of the area lasting fifteen days, a kind of Way of Saint James like that of Spain, with the only difference that it is Saint James who goes out to seek the pilgrims.
The main days are July 24 and 25. On the 24th the tope de los santos (meeting of the saints) takes place, in which Nicaraguan culture, tradition and popular religiosity come together to show the greatest and most beautiful gesture of union between peoples. Saint Sebastian, patron of Diriamba, and Saint Mark, patron of the city that bears his name, meet with Saint James to celebrate together, on July 25, the solemnity of Saint James the Apostle.
On August 1 the Octave of the festivities is celebrated. On the Sunday after the Octave the farewell of the saints takes place, thus culminating the festivities in honor of Saint James the Apostle. These are the most important festivities in honor of Saint James the Apostle in all of Nicaragua, where traditional dances can be seen such as El Güegüense or Macho Ratón, El Toro Huaco, Las Inditas, De las Húngaras, Los Diablitos, El Gigante, Moros y Cristianos, El Viejo y la Vieja, La Vaquita and Los Chinegros, among others that fill these traditional festivities, which last almost three months, with great color.
In the city of Boaco, capital of the department of the same name, its patron saint is Saint James the Apostle, celebrated with grand festivities on July 25 each year; he is housed in the church that bears his name, where the remains of Father José Nieborowski rest, and he is celebrated with great religious fervor.
Panama
In this country lies the oldest city of the Pacific coast, Natá de los Caballeros, in which the national historic heritage site, the Basilica of Saint James the Apostle, is located; it has kept this apostle of Jesus Christ as its patron since the 16th century. The saint became a religious bulwark from the very moment he arrived from Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, a city that also has Saint James the Apostle as its patron. In Natá de los Caballeros he has been much visited by his faithful since he arrived in the year 1522.
He is venerated in the city of Santiago de Veraguas, capital of Veraguas Province, Diocese of Veraguas, in the cathedral of Saint James the Apostle, inaugurated as the diocese of the province in 1963. Every July 25, his cathedral is surrounded by the faithful to take part in the Eucharist and annual procession of their Patron, a religious event that opens the way to popular celebrations characterized by cavalcades, folk performances and others of a regional character.
Peru
In Lampa (Puno, Peru), every July 25 the festivities in honor of its Patron Saint, Saint James the Apostle, are celebrated. Inhabitants of the community of Unión Sutuca (Sutuca Anansaya and Sutuca Urinsaya), riding their horses and dressed like Saint James the Apostle, called Kaperos, accompany him carrying their Knives, Staffs and Flags. Musicians of Pitu Bands support the Kaperos, playing melodies proper to the occasion.[19] In what was the other great viceregal center, Saint James the Apostle is patron of Santiago de Ica, also of the town of Pauza, province of Paucar del Sara Sara, Ayacucho Department; of Santiago de Chuco in the department of La Libertad; of the town of Santiago de la Nazca (Nazca) in the Ica Department; and of the city of Abancay, capital of the Apurímac Department (originally named Santiago de Abancay). His feast is celebrated in the town of Cabana, in the Áncash Department.
In the Lima district of Santiago de Surco, a decoration bearing his name, the Order of Saint James the Apostle, is awarded to figures who have a beneficial influence on society. James the Great is also the patron of the town of Guzmango, in the province of Contumazá, Cajamarca Department.
In Lunahuaná, tourist and cultural capital of the province of Cañete, Lima Department, Saint James the Apostle has a great patronal festivity on July 25 every year, in which the authorities and the people take part with much rejoicing, in colorful troupes in the Plaza Mayor, with a great Festive Mass in the viceregal-era church that bears his name, which precedes the procession of the saint through the main streets.
In Cusco, the Patrón Santiago is celebrated. Since the 16th century he has taken part in the celebration of Corpus Christi, together with other notable images such as Our Lady of Bethlehem or the patron Saint Sebastian. At the Entrance of Corpus, Saint James comes down from his church to the cathedral basilica of Cusco, where he will wait until the central day. After the festivity, the Patron goes back up to the church. He will come out again for his patronal feast in the month of July, and will finally enter his house to await the next Corpus festivities.
In the department of La Libertad, James the Great is patron of the city of Santiago de Chuco, capital of the province of the same name, whose feast is celebrated with great renown on July 25 every year, with great fervor and devotion, and is very famous in this region.
Also, in the department of Ayacucho, Lucanas.
Dominican Republic
He is the patron saint of the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, capital of Santiago Province, a city founded in 1495, seat of the Archdiocese of Santiago de los Caballeros, metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of the same name. Its cathedral is dedicated to the saint.
Venezuela
He was (from its founding in 1567) the patron saint of the city of Caracas (founded with the name Santiago de León de Caracas) until June 15, 2011, when Pope Benedict XVI, at the request of the Caracas clergy, decreed as patroness of the city Our Lady of Coromoto, who is also the patroness of Venezuela.
Name
His name in Hebrew is Jacob (יעקב), but over time it has been transformed into Jacobo, Iago, Yago, San Iago, San Yago, Santiago, Tiago or Thiago, Diego, Jaime, James, Jim, Jimmy, Jackes, Jacques.
See also
- Way of Saint James
- Vow of Saint James
- Battle of Clavijo
- Order of Santiago
- Church of Saint James
- Cathedral of Santiago
- Holy Year of Saint James
- Our Lady of the Pillar
References
- ↑ Santiago el Mayor, Apóstol-mártir (Patrono de España), Diocese of Málaga. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
- ↑ La Catedral toma su nombre del patrón de Bilbao, el Apóstol Santiago el Mayor. Nieva de Cameros. AsturNatura
- ↑ [1], Archdiocese of Santiago de los Caballeros. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
- ↑ http://haciasantiagojmfanjul.com/category/historia/la-controversia-sobre-la-tumba/ Controversia sobre la tumba de Santiago
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Taranilla, Carlos (2020). "Introducción". Eso no estaba en mi libro del Camino de Santiago (in español). Almuzara. ISBN 9788418578717.
- ↑ Blanco Freijeiro, Antonio; Millán González Pardo, Isidoro (1989). "Hallazgo en el mausoleo del Apóstol Santiago del título sepulcral griego de su discípulo San Atanasio". Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia (in español). 186 (2): 209–220. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ↑ Suárez Otero, J. and Caamaño Gesto, M. (2003) Santiago antes de Santiago, in: Portela Silva, E. (ed.) Historia de la ciudad de Santiago de Compostela 23–48.
- ↑ Moralejo, S. Ara de Antealtares, in: Moralejo, S. and López Alsina, (eds.), Santiago, camino de Europa cit., 252–253.F.
- ↑ "Discovery of prof. Enrique Alarcón! Inscription in the Apostolic Tomb in Santiago | Camino de Santiago and Tomb of St. James: history and interpretation". www.camino.umk.pl. Archived from the original on May 5, 2016. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
- ↑ "Enrique Alarcón descubre el nombre hebreo «Jacob» en el sepulcro del apóstol en Santiago de Compostela". InfoCatólica (in español). 2011-06-25. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
- ↑ Alarcón, E. (2013) The Historical Basis for the Way of Saint James. In: Z. Sztylc, D. Zagórski, A Radziminski, R. Biskup (eds.), Fundamenty średniowiecznej Europy 41–72.
- ↑ Alarcón, Enrique (2017). Roszak, Piotr (ed.). The way of St. James: Renewing Insights. EUNSA - Ediciones Universidad de Navarra.
- ↑ "Enrique Alarcón: «En el siglo II ya se rendía un culto funerario al Apóstol en Santiago»" (in español).
- ↑ Curchin, L. A. (2008) "Los topónimos de la Galicia romana", in: "Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos" 55/121 117.
- ↑ ""Puede haber otras inscripciones que pasasen inadvertidas"". El Faro de Vigo (in español). June 25, 2011.
- ↑ Published in the D.O.G. on January 1, 1979
- ↑ "Bandera Oficial de la Provincia" (in español). Sitio oficial de la Provincia de Santiago del Estero. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
- ↑ Published in Galicia Exterior [2] on May 24, 2019
- ↑ Ayarachi Films (2018-08-29). "Santiago Apóstol de Lampa - Los Khaperos" (in español). Retrieved 2024-07-28.
Bibliography
- Kendrick, Thomas D. (1960). Saint James in Spain. London: Methuen. OCLC 2011096.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - López Ferreiro, Antonio (1898). Historia de la santa A.M. Iglesia de Santiago (PDF) (in español). Vol. Tomo I. Santiago de Compostela: Seminario Conciliar Central. OCLC 932806776.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Márquez Villanueva, Francisco (2004). Santiago: Trayectoria de un mito (in español). Barcelona: Bellaterra. ISBN 9788472902411.
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External links
- Santiago el Mayor - 25 de julio (in Spanish)
- Benedicto XVI presenta la lección del apóstol Santiago (in Spanish)
