On the 2nd January of the year 40AD, Virgin Mary appeared to James, on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the Gospel in Iberia. She appeared upon a pillar, Nuestra Señora 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. After James’ death his disciples carried his body by sea to Iberia, where they landed at Padrón on the coast of Galicia, and took it inland for burial at Santiago de Compostela
Facts are that, James, son of Zebedee (Aramaic Yaʕqov, Greek Ιάκωβος) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was a son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of John the Apostle. He is also called James the Greater to distinguish him from James, son of Alphaeus, who is also known as James the Less. The Synoptic Gospels state that James and John were with their father by the seashore when Jesus called them to follow him. [Matt. 4:21-22][Mk. 1:19-20]
Saint James is the Patron Saint of Spain. The liturgical calendars of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and certain Protestant churches celebrate the feast day of St James on 25 July. He is commemorated on 30 April in the Orthodox Christian liturgical calendar (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, 30 April currently falls on 13 May of the modern Gregorian Calendar)
Saint James had a special place in the Central African Kingdom of Kongo because of his association with the founding of Christianity in the country in the late 15th century. The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo dya Ntotila or Wene wa Kongo or Portuguese: Reino do Kongo) was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what is now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the southernmost part of Gabon. At its greatest extent, it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south
Portuguese sailors and diplomats brought the saint to Kongo when they first reached the region in 1483. When King Afonso I of Kongo whose Kongo name was Mvemba a Nzinga, the second Christian king, was facing a rival, his brother Mpanzu a Kitima, in battle, he reported that a vision of Saint James and the Heavenly Host appeared in the sky, frightened Mpanzu a Kitima's soldiers, and gave Afonso the victory. As a result, he declared that Saint James' feast day (25 July) be celebrated as a national holiday.
Over the years, Saint James day became the central holiday of Kongo. Taxes were collected on that day, and men eligible for military duty were required to appear armed. There were usually regional celebrations as well as one at the capital. In some cases, Kongolese slaves carried the celebration to the New World, and there are still celebrations of Saint James Day in Haiti and Puerto Rico.
The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is...
Read more in our next post.
Buen Comino
Information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James
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