Feast of Saint James the Just – May 3

In the New Testament there are three characters named James who played an important role in the early Church. Two of them were among the Twelve Apostles. One was James son of Zebedee, brother of John, one of the closest disciples to Jesus and the first of the apostles to die a martyr's death (in about 44, see the description in Acts 12). The other was James son of Alphaeus. There is also a James called "brother of the Lord" who was the first bishop of Jerusalem (and he is identified as James the Just).

The New Testament does not give details about his life. In the New Testament period, "brother" was used as a term for half brothers too and also for cousins (cf. Genesis 13:8). It would seem that James was one of those close to Jesus but he is mentioned first as one of the brothers of Jesus who did not believe in him (cf. Mark 3:21, John 7:5). The brothers are mentioned by name in another text that speaks of their lack of faith (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55). Tradition tells that James later became one of the seventy apostles sent out by Jesus (Luke 10:1).

In any case, James became a leading figure in the early community after the resurrection of Jesus. Paul mentions him as one of those who saw the risen Christ (1Corinthians 15:7). According to a tradition retold by Saint Jerome, this revelation occurred in Jerusalem, when James went up to the Holy City with his brothers for the feast of Passover. Luke recounts that the brothers of Jesus, who did not believe before, were one heart with Mary and the apostles after Jesus' ascension into heaven (Acts 1:14). According to the same tradition told by Jerome, at the time of the ascension, the Lord confided the leadership of the Church in Jerusalem to James while he also told Peter and the other apostles to be his witnesses "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). A number of events are described in the New Testament that illustrate the authority of James, a pillar of the early community, at least from 36 onwards (for example Galatians 1:18-19, Acts 12:17, Galatians 2:9). James concludes the Jerusalem Council with his decisive words regarding the absorption of Gentile believers into the Church of Christ.

According to tradition, this same "brother of the Lord" formulated the Epistle of Saint James, which was written in about 58. There the spirit of the Gospel is interwoven with the Biblical and oral Jewish tradition – a wonderful expression of the Judeo-Christian spirituality of the Jerusalem Church.

Flavius Josephus, the historian, reports the martyrdom of James, brother of the Lord. In 62, the High Priest Annas accused James, brother of Jesus, because many came to him in order to venerate him as a "just man" because of the sanctity of his life. He was sentenced by the Sanhedrin and taken out and stoned. Christian tradition tells a story that is a little different: James was taken to a pinnacle of the Temple and there he was supposed to discourage the people from following Jesus. Instead he proclaimed his faith in Jesus as Son of God, sitting at the right hand of the Father and who will come to judge the living and the dead. This proclamation strengthened the faith of the crowd which won for James the fury of his enemies who threw him down from the pinnacle. He was then stoned to death as he prayed for his killers.