James the Elder

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James the Elder - Fresco in the Cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay

James the Elder ( Latin Jacobus Maior "Jakobus the Elder" or Iacobus Zebedaei = "James (son of) Zebedee ", Greek Ἰάκωβος ὁ τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου , Spanish and Portuguese Santiago ; † around 44 AD) is a figure of the New Testament . He is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and is one of the most famous saints worldwide.

New Testament

Together with his brother John , James, along with Andrew and Simon Peter, is one of the first called disciples ( Mt 4,21  EU ; Lk 5,10  EU ). The name James is a Latinized form of the name of the patriarch Jacob ( Hebrew יַעֲקֹב Ja'akov ). The first-called disciples have a special position in the New Testament among the disciples ( Lk 8,51  EU ) because Jesus allows them to take part in important events in his life. James is together with Peter and John on the Mount of Transfiguration ( Mt 17.1  EU ) when Jesus speaks with Elijah and Moses , and in the garden of Gethsemane ( Mt 26.37  EU ) he witnesses the desperation of Jesus in view of his impending ordeal.

Because of their impetuous nature, James and John received the Aramaic surname Boanerges from Jesus , which means Sons of Thunder ( Mk 3,17  EU , cf. Lk 9,54  EU ). After the resurrection , James is with the other apostles in Jerusalem ( Acts 1,13  EU ). According to Acts 12 : 1-2  EU he was executed with the sword during the rule of Herod Agrippa I over the whole of Judea (41-44 AD). Both Mark and the Gospel according to Matthew reflect his violent death ( Mk 10.39  EU ; Matt 20.23  EU ).

According to Christian tradition, the name of the mother of the Zebedee sons is said to have been Salome . This goes back to an interpretation of Mt 27.56  EU , where instead of the "Salome" mentioned in Mk 15.40  EU , it speaks of the "mother of the sons of Zebedee".

Legends

Santiago de Compostela Cathedral

There are numerous legends about James, especially in Spain . He is said to have been the apostle who preached on the Iberian Peninsula after the ascension of Jesus . He is said to have wooed disciples with the prophecy that after his death he would convert innumerable people. During the trip, however, he had so little success that one day, according to tradition, he sat despondent and desperate in the area of ​​today's Saragossa on the banks of the Ebro . When he made the decision to break off the mission , the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to him on a pillar and assured him of her support.

According to another legend, which was fundamental to the cult of St. James in Santiago de Compostela , his disciples handed the apostle's body after the beheading to an unmanned ship that later landed in Galicia in northwestern Spain. Helpers placed him further inland. Then the grave was forgotten. After it was rediscovered in the 9th century, a chapel, later a church and finally the cathedral was built above it , around which the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela developed and to which the Way of St. James lead.

Since the late 9th century, the apostle, who became the national saint, was increasingly assigned a military function. King Alfonso III of Asturias (866–910) attributed his victories to the intervention of the saint. This involved battles not only against the Moors , but also against Christian enemies. The conquest of the city of Coimbra (1064) by King Ferdinand I of Castile and León was attributed to the help of the “soldier of Christ” James. According to a late 12th-century legend, James joined the Christians against the Moors in the Battle of Clavijo in 844 and brought about victory, appearing as a knight on a white horse. There are many reports of this kind in the chronicles. James was nicknamed Matamoros (= "Moors slayer"). In the late Middle Ages he was depicted as a galloping knight. ¡Santiago y cierra, España! (“Saint Jacob and attack, Spain!”) Became the traditional battle cry of the Spanish armies. James was also assigned the role of battle helper during the conquest of America and during the battles against the Turks.

State of research

James the Elder by Gil de Siloé
Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to current research, there is no evidence for the historicity of James outside of the New Testament. Therefore, there is no evidence to suggest that James actually stayed on the Iberian Peninsula. The oldest source that mentions a stay in Spain is the Breviarium apostolorum (around 600), where it is only narrowly claimed that he preached in Spain and “in western places”. This idea was then taken up by various authors (including Isidor von Sevilla , Aldhelm von Sherborne and Beatus von Liébana ), but not particularly emphasized. Only in the hymn "O dei verbum patris ore proditum" from the late 8th century is James referred to as the patron and protector of Spain. The claim that the bones of James were brought to Spain appears for the first time in documents of the 9th century, where reference is made to the discovery of the alleged apostolic grave under King Alfonso II (r. 791-842), which was made after 818 dating is. This claim is not considered credible by research, because in late antiquity and during the entire period of Visigoth rule on the Iberian Peninsula, which lasted until the period 711–719, there was never any mention of a burial of the apostle in Spain.

Controversies about the Spanish legend of James

The stay of James on the Iberian Peninsula was already denied in Spain in the Middle Ages. It was less about historical truth than about power struggles between church provinces. With reference to its alleged apostolic foundation, the Church of Santiago claimed a special authority, which was met with opposition, especially in Toledo.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries there was a heated controversy when a commission of cardinals in Rome revised the Roman Breviary and wanted to change the text about James, as his missionary work in Spain was not backed up by credible sources and therefore very doubtful be. The Spanish ambassador intervened to prevent this. At first a compromise solution was found. In 1631, the conflict ended with an outright victory for Spanish diplomacy over the source-critical reasoning of the humanist cardinals, and the legend once again became the official standpoint of the Catholic Church. The scholarly debate continued about the historicity of the apostle's missionary work. It was carried out with great intensity into the 20th century. The transfer of the bones to Spain and their burial in Santiago, however, was not in doubt in the Catholic area in the early modern period. Martin Luther , however, expressed his opinion in drastic terms that there was no reason to believe the grave to be real. This is the result of the modern source criticism that began in the 19th century.

In the late 20th century, the Count of Quirós, Don Isidoro Millán González-Pardo, emerged as a staunch defender of the historical reliability of the legend of St. James. In 1989 he published a report in a magazine, the scientific reputation of which is controversial, about a sensational find: a funerary inscription was discovered in the Cathedral of Santiago that reads: Athanasios martyr (= "The Martyr Athanasios"). This inscription can be dated to the 1st century. Since Athanasios, according to the legend of James, was a pupil of James and was buried next to him, the authenticity of the apostle's tomb is proven.

However, the detailed publication about the find that was announced at the time has not yet appeared - a photo has not been published and a review has not taken place. The count died in 2002. A student of James named Athanasios is first mentioned in the 12th century in a miracle story about the transfer of the bones of James; in an older version of this legend (11th century) the name is "Anastasios".

The Archdiocese of Santiago today describes the history of the tomb of St. James on its website based on the information provided by Millán González-Pardo and presents the authenticity of the tomb as a fact. There it is claimed that the Athanasios inscription exists, but is in a very poor state of preservation (muy desgastada) . Millán González-Pardo had stated that the inscription was written “in clear Greek italics”.

Adoration

James is one of the most important saints in the world: Numerous cities (including Santiago de Chile , Santiago de Cuba , Santiago de los Caballeros , etc.) as well as hundreds of Jacob's churches bear his name.

Remembrance day

Sankt-Jakobs-Kirche in Kirchberg am Wechsel
Jacob Cross

In the Protestant and Catholic Church of James's Remembrance of 25. July was celebrated in the medieval in many parts of Europe, harvest festivals or fair; in the Orthodox Church it is April 30th , in the Coptic Church on April 12th and in the Ethiopian Church on December 28th .

The 25th of July has been known in the west as the day of St. James (also called St. Jakob, or Jakobi for short) since the 8th century, i.e. as a feast day for St. James the Elder, brother of the Evangelist John .

Farmer rules

Jacob's Day is a day with important weather rules :

  • "Jakobi hot - worth the effort and diligence."
  • "Jakobi clear and pure, Christmas will be frosty."
  • "Jakobi - cut obi!" (Jakobi as the beginning of the grain cut)

Patron saint

James the Elder is the patron saint of many places and cities, but also

  • from Spain
  • the pilgrim
  • the pharmacist and druggist
  • the hatter, wax maker and chain smith
  • the warrior
  • the Schröter
  • the worker
  • for apples and crops
  • for the weather

Order of knights

In the reconquest of Spain ( reconquista ) and the conquest ( conquista ) of the overseas colonies, the Order of Santiago played an important role; his emblem is the Jacobean cross .

politics

Claimed him for their cause

iconography

Depiction as a Moorslayer

Medieval depictions of Jakobus / Santiago are rather rare and can usually be found in group depictions of the apostles in portal garments; only in the course of the Reconquista and Conquista do they become more numerous. James is mostly depicted standing or sitting - often as a pilgrim with a scallop shell , pilgrim's staff (also "Jacob's staff"), pilgrim hat and cloak, as well as a knight and slayer of the moors (Matamoros) , on horseback and fighting with the sword. Representations of James as Matamoros are widespread in early modern sculpture in Spain . Probably the best-known representation of Matamoros is located as a relief above the main portal of the Santiago Church of Logroño .

Saint James is depicted in the city arms of Winterberg , Poppenhausen and Rüdesheim am Rhein , in these places derived from the patronage of the parish church consecrated to the saint. The cross of the Order of Santiago can be found in many city coats of arms in Spain.

A relief depiction of Christ as a “pilgrim to St. James” in the cloister of the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos is remarkable .

Meaning outside of Christianity

In Haitian Voodoo , James the Elder is worshiped syncretistically in the form of the Loa Ogoun .

research

The German St. Jakobus Society e. V. explores the veneration of the apostle and the history of the pilgrimage to his grave ( St. James' Way ) in Santiago de Compostela .

See also

Biblical person (s) with the same name:

literature

Web links

Commons : James the Elder  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Thomas Deswarte: De la destruction à la restauration. Turnhout 2003, p. 106 f. Klaus Herbers: Politics and Adoration of Saints on the Iberian Peninsula. The development of the "political James" . In: Jürgen Petersohn (Ed.): Politics and adoration of saints in the high Middle Ages . Sigmaringen 1994, pp. 199-202.
  2. ↑ Deswarte p. 107; Herbers pp. 203-209.
  3. ↑ Herbers pp. 233-235.
  4. ↑ Jan van Herwaarden: The origins of the cult of St James of Compostela . In: Journal of Medieval History , 6, 1980, pp. 3-7.
  5. ↑ Herwaarden, pp. 7-18.
  6. ↑ Herbers p. 196, Deswarte p. 102.
  7. ↑ Herwaarden pp. 23–30.
  8. ^ Robert Plötz: The Apostle Jacobus in Spain up to the 9th century . In: Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft , 1st series, Volume 30, 1982, pp. 20-22.
  9. ↑ Plötz pp. 22-24.
  10. ↑ Klaus Herbers: The Way of St. James. 3rd edition Tübingen 1990, p. 11 f.
  11. ^ Es : Real Academia de la Historia # Crítica
  12. ↑ Isidoro Millán González-Pardo, Antonio Blanco Freijeiro: Hallazgo en el Mausoleo del Apóstol Santiago del título sepulcral griego de su discípulo San Atanasio . In: Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia , Volume 186, 1989, pp. 209-219.
  13. ↑ Plötz pp. 125-131.
  14. ↑ La Tumba Apostólica
  15. ↑ Millán González-Pardo p. 218.
  16. ^ Webster University : Descriptions of Various Loa of Voodoo, 1990
personal data
SURNAME James the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES James Maior; James the Great; Santiago
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Apostle of Jesus Christ
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC BC or 1st century
DATE OF DEATH at 44