St. James
There were two of the twelve disciples of Christ named James.
The Apostle St. James the Great, brother of John and son of Zebedee, is the patron saint of Spain. Legend states that after his death in Palestine his body was placed in a boat with sails set, and that next day it reached the Spanish coast; at Padron, near Compostella, they used to show a huge stone as the veritable boat. According to another legend, it was the relics of St. James that were miraculously conveyed in Spain in a ship of marble from Jerusalem, where he was a bishop. A knight saw the ship sailing into port, his horse took fright, and plunged with its rider into the sea.
The knight saved himself by "boarding the marble vessel," but his clothes were found to be entirely covered with scallop shells. The saint's body was discovered in 840 by divine revelation to Bishop Theodomirus, and a church was built at Compostella for its shrine. St. James is commemorated on July 25, and is represented in art sometimes with the sword by which he was beheaded and sometimes attired as a pilgrim, with his cloak covered with shells. He is also known as Santiago, a variation of St. James (Span. San Diego).
St. James the Less
His attribute is a fuller's club, in allusion to the instrument by which he was put to death after having been precipitated from the summit of the temple at Jerusalem in 62 A. D. He is commemorated on May 1. Less means the shorter of stature.
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