July 25 Feast of St James the Great
This Apostle was a son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Galilee, and Salome (cf. Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1), and brother of John the Evangelist. He is sometimes called 'James the Greater', and sometimes 'Jacob'.
James was apparently a disciple of St John the Baptist and left everything when Jesus called him to be a fisher of men. James was among the circle of people closest to Jesus, was present with Peter and John at the Transfiguration, and again at the Agony in the Garden, sleeping while Christ prayed. He was tried and executed in Jerusalem in the year 44 CE by Agrippa I, son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great. There is a tradition that James founded an Apostolic in Spain; this tradition was current as early as 700, but no certain mention of such tradition is to be found earlier.
Once, he resurrected a boy who had been wrongly executed, and had been dead for five weeks. The boy's father, notified of the miracle while he sat at his dinner table, pronounced the story nonsense, saying his son was no more alive than the roasted fowl on the table. The cooked bird promptly sat up, sprouted feathers, and flew away. Or, so it is said.
St James the Great is the patron saint of, among other things, apothecaries, arthritis sufferers, blacksmiths, Chile, druggists, equestrians, furriers, Guatemala, horsemen, knights, labourers, pharmacists, pilgrims, soldiers, Spanish conquistadors, tanners, and veterinarians .
He is also the patron of Spain, where he is said to have preached, and it was in Spain that a remarkable transformation came over the legend of this fisherman. At the Battle of Clavijo, 841, between Ramiro, King of Leon, and the Moors, when the Christians were losing, St James appeared in the field, on a charger decorated with scallop shells, and armed, he slew 60,000 of the Moors. In his honour, the Spaniards founded the Order of St James of the Sword (Santiago de Espada).
For centuries, the Spanish army rode to battle with the cry "Santiago!" ("Saint James!"). An example of this was at the Battle of Cajamarca, Peru on November 16, 1532, when only 168 conquistadors led by Francisco Pizarro (1471 - 1541) defeated 80,000 Incan warriors led by their emperor, Atahualpa. Tradition has it that over the centuries, James has appeared, and been seen fighting at Flanders, Italy, India and America. Charles V (1500 - 1558) conquered Tunis on St James's Day.
The Pilgrimage of Compostela, Spain is Europe's greatest pilgrimage.
The city of Santiago de Compostela became the seat of the saint, from the legend of his body having been miraculously translated there.
When his relics were being conveyed from Jerusalem, where he died, to Spain, in a ship of marble, the horse of a Portuguese knight plunged into the sea with its rider. When rescued, the knight's clothes were found to be covered with scallop shells.
It might be that the use of the scallop device derives from the pilgrims' using shells as primitive cups and spoons, or it might derive from the earlier Roman festival of the sea god and goddess, Neptune and Salacia (July 23, qv). Pilgrims to the shrine wore, and often still wear, a scallop shell on cloak or hat. Medieval Galicians (from Galicia, Spain 'the land of the Gaelic, or Celtic/Gallic people' – first cousins to the Irish, Welsh, Scots, Cornish and Bretons; living in northwest Spain around Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain) who were willing to accept passing pilgrims into their homes also hung scallop shells over their doors. In French, 'une coquille Saint-Jacques' – literally, a 'St James shell' – is the term for 'scallop'.
The remains of the Apostle lay forgotten until the year 813, when a hermit named Pelayo was led to their hidden site by a shining star (campus stellae), thus giving the name to the city, or from the latin word for cemetary compostela). The local bishop had the cathedral erected at this location where the bones of the saint lie in a chapel located in the basement of the church.
The pilgrimage to Compostela became almost as popular and important in medieval Europe as that to Jerusalem. Because of this, seventeen English peers and eight baronets have scallop shells in their arms as heraldic charges.
The pilgrimage, known as the Camino, is as popular today as it was in the Middle Ages. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world, not all of them Roman Catholic, make the journey on foot. The pilgrimage, probably the most famous on the planet, goes for about 900 kilometres, from France to Spain, and takes about a month.
More folklore
Apples were blessed on this day by the priests, and at Cliff in Kent, England the rector traditionally distributed a mutton pie and a loaf to as many as ask for it.
At the Fiesta de Santiago in Loiz Aldea, Puerto Rico, villagers still act out the characters from the battle of St James against the Moors. Some wear their faces painted white, dressed as Spanish conquistadors, while others impersonate the Moors, who are represented (of course) as grotesques, with carved, horned masks. Some villagers become clowns, and others “crazy women” (men dressed in women’s clothes).
There is an old English saying that “Who eats oysters on St James's Day will never want”. In Britain, St James's Day falls during what also became known as the close season for oysters, meaning that by act of parliament they are prohibited to be harvested until today. We may assume that oysters obtainable so early in the season would be a luxury only eaten by the rich.
Quotes
Omnis homo velox est.[Let every man be swift (to hear).] In art, the motto of St James the Greater
Until St James Day be come and gone
You may have hops or you may have none.Traditional English proverb
If it be fair three Sundays before St James’s day, corn will be good; but wet corn will wither.English traditional proverb
Whoever eats oysters on St James's Day will never want money. English traditional proverb
I think oysters are more beautiful than any religion. Saki: The Chronicles of Clovis
1 comment:
wauw, this is a nice way to learn about where we were.
thx broertje.
je blog is echt wel een plezier om te lezen. ik word gewoon van het ene in het andere boeiende en afwisselende verhaal getrokken.
ciao,
bart
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