25th Jul - ST APOLLINARIS OF RAVENNA'

 James is the son of Zebedee and Salome, brother of St. John the Apostle and may have been Jesus' cousin. He is called "The Great" simply because he became an Apostle. 

He was an apparent disciple of St. John the Baptist. He left everything when Christ called him to be a fisher of men. He was present during most of the recorded miracles of Christ. 

Preached in Samaria, Judea, and Spain. On January 2 of the year 40 A.D., the Virgin Mary appeared to St. James the Great on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, 

while he was preaching the Gospel in Spain. She supposedly appeared upon a pillar Nuestra Seora del Pilar, and that pillar is conserved and venerated within the present Basilica 

of Our Lady of the Pillar, in Zaragoza, Spain. Following that apparition, St. James returned to Judea, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44. 

He was the first Apostle to be martyred. The pilgrimage to his relics in Compostella became such a popular devotion that the symbols of pilgrims have become his emblems, 

and he became patron of pilgrims. His work in Spain, and the housing of his relics there, led to his patronage of the country and all things Spanish; for centuries, 

the Spanish army rode to battle with the cry "Santiago!" James is patron of Galicia and Spain.




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