Photo: pstgu.ru In his Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes that, together with the Apostle Peter, the Apostles James and John were regarded as pillars of the Church. St. James was the son of Joseph the Betrothed by his first wife, and for this reason he is called the Brother of the Lord in the Gospel. According to tradition, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him after His Resurrection and appointed him Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem. Thus, the Apostle James was entrusted with a special ministry: unlike the other apostles, he did not travel to various lands preaching the Gospel, but taught and performed sacred rites in Jerusalem, a city of such great significance to the Christian world.
As head of the Church of Jerusalem, he presided over the Apostolic Council held in Jerusalem in the year 51. His voice was, in fact, decisive, and the proposal he put forward became the resolution of the Apostolic Council (Acts 15). This circumstance is of great importance in view Roman Catholic claims exalting the Apostle Peter to the position of head of the Church, so that they could also claim the supremacy of the Pope of Rome.
The authority of the Apostle James was further strengthened by his ascetic life. He was an austere virgin, drank neither wine nor any other intoxicating beverage, abstained from meat, and wore only linen garments. He was accustomed to withdrawing into the Temple for prayer, where he would kneel and intercede for his people. So often did he prostrate himself in prayer that the skin on his knees became hardened and calloused.
The ministry of the Apostle James was difficult, for he lived among some of the fiercest enemies of Christianity. Yet he conducted himself with such spiritual discernment and justice that he was respected not only by Christians but also by the Jews, who called him the bulwark of the people and the Righteous One. During his approximately thirty years as Bishop of Jerusalem, he spread and firmly established the holy faith in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. When the Apostle Paul visited the Apostle James on his final journey, the presbyters gathered together and reported to him the success of Christian preaching among the Jews with these words: Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law (Acts 21:20). Many Jews entered the Church simply because they trusted the word of this righteous man.
Observing the apostle’s great influence over the people, the Jewish authorities began to fear that the entire nation might turn to Christ. They therefore resolved to take advantage of the interval between the departure of the procurator Festus and the arrival of his successor Albinus (A.D. 62), either to compel James to renounce Christ or to put him to death. The high priest at that time was the impious Sadducee Ananus.
Before a great multitude of people, the apostle was led onto the portico of the Temple. After addressing him with a few flattering words, they asked him contemptuously, “Tell us about the Crucified One.”
“Do you ask me about Jesus?” the righteous man proclaimed in a loud voice. “He sitteth in heaven at the right hand of the Most High Power, and shall come again upon the clouds of heaven.”
There were many Christians among the crowd, who joyfully cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
But the chief priests and scribes shouted, “Behold, even the righteous man has gone astray!” And they cast him down to the ground.
James was still able to rise to his knees, and he prayed, “Lord, forgive them! They know not what they do.”
“Let us stone him!” cried his enemies.
One of the priests, a descendant of Rechab (whose people drank no wine, dwelt in tents, and neither sowed wheat nor planted vineyards), began to plead with them: “What are you doing? See, the righteous man is praying for you!”
But at that very moment, a fanatic, a fuller by trade, struck the apostle on the head with his fuller’s club and killed him. Many Christians were put to death along with him.
The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, in enumerating the causes of the fall of Jerusalem, states that the Lord punished the Jews, among other things, for the murder of the righteous James.
Shortly before his death, the Apostle James wrote his Catholic Epistle. The principal purpose of this epistle was to console and strengthen the Jews who had embraced the Christian faith amid the sufferings that awaited them, and to warn them against the mistaken belief that faith alone can save a man. The holy apostle explains that faith unaccompanied by good works is dead and does not lead to salvation.
Church Tradition attributes to the Apostle James the composition of the most ancient rite of the Divine Liturgy.
