Apostolic · d. c. 44
Holy Apostle James, Son of Zebedee
Apostle, brother of John, first martyred apostle
A Galilean fisherman called with his brother John while mending nets in their father Zebedee's boat, James belonged to the innermost circle of the Twelve: with Peter and John he witnessed the raising of Jairus' daughter, the Transfiguration, and the agony in Gethsemane. Jesus named the brothers Boanerges, 'sons of thunder' — they once offered to call down fire on an inhospitable village, and their mother asked thrones for them at Christ's right and left, drawing the reply about drinking his cup. James drank it first. He is the only apostle whose death Scripture itself records: Herod Agrippa I 'killed James the brother of John with the sword' around the year 44 (Acts 12), making him the first of the Twelve to be martyred. The later Spanish traditions of his preaching in Iberia and his shrine at Compostela are medieval developments.
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