Troparion in Tone 4
Thou hast received the Gospel as a disciple,
thou art invincible as a martyr,
and bold as the Lord's brother,
thou dost intercede as a hierarch.
O righteous James, pray to Christ our God
that He may save our souls.
Holy Apostle James, the Brother of God
(Adelphotheos) was the son of Righteous Joseph the Betrothed of the Most
Holy Theotokos.
James was a son of Saint Joseph
the Betrothed by a previous marriage.
When Joseph was dying, he
wanted to include Jesus as an heir, but Joseph's other sons opposed it,
not considering Jesus to be a brother. James spoke up and said he would
split his portion with Jesus, thus counting himself a true brother of
the Lord.
He kept chaste and lived on
only bread and water. He was one of the 70. James became the first
bishop in Jerusalem, where he served for about 30 years, presiding over
the Council there. He was instructed by the Lord to compose
the first Liturgy, which was later shortened by Saint Basil the Great and
Saint John Chrysostom.
He ruled with such wisdom
that even unbelievers called him "James the Just". Ananias the High
Priest determined to kill James. On Passover, when many people were in
the city, the elders commanded James to climb up onto a roof and
denounce Christ. St. James climbed up onto the roof and began to preach
the gospel. The Jewish priests and elders threw him to the ground. He
was badly injured, but alive. A man from the crowd ran up and hit him so
hard in the head that his brains spilled out. Thus James entered into
glory of the Kingdom of God.
In his hands is a scroll which
reads: "Let all mortal flesh keep silence." This
icon commemorates Saint
James' contribution to the development of the Liturgy. The Liturgy
celebrated on Lazarus Saturday bears his name.
From his early years James was a Nazarene, a
man especially dedicated to God. The Nazarenes vowed to preserve their
virginity, to abstain from wine, to refrain from eating meat, and not to
cut their hair. The vow of the Nazarenes symbolized a life of holiness
and purity, commanded formerly by the Lord for all Israel. When the
Savior began to teach the nation about the Kingdom of God, Saint James
believed in Christ and became His apostle. He was chosen as the first
Bishop of Jerusalem.
Saint James presided over the Council of Jerusalem and his word was
decisive (Acts 15). In his thirty years as bishop, Saint James converted
many of the Jews to Christianity. Annoyed by this, the Pharisees and the
Scribes plotted together to kill Saint James. They led the saint up on the
pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple and asked what he thought of Jesus. The
holy Apostle began to bear witness that Christ is the Messiah, which was
not the response the Pharisees were expecting. Greatly angered, the
Jewish teachers threw him off the roof. The saint did not die
immediately, but gathering his final strength, he prayed to the Lord for
his enemies while they were stoning him. Saint James' martyrdom occurred
about 63 A.D.
The holy Apostle James composed a Divine Liturgy, which formed the basis
of the Liturgies of Sts Basil the Great and John Chrysostom. The Church
has preserved an Epistle of Saint James, one of the books of the New
Testament.
In 1853, Patriarch Hierotheus of Alexandria sent to Moscow a portion of
the relics of Saint James. The Church distinguishes between the holy
Apostle James the Brother of God, and Saint James the son of Zebedee (April
30) and Saint James the son of Alphaeus (October 9).
James was one of the Twelve, like his brother
John (celebrated on Sept. 26), whom the Lord called "Sons of Thunder,"
because they became great preachers and because of their profound
theology. It was the Saint's boldness in preaching the Gospel that Herod
Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great, could
not endure, and so he took him into custody during the days of the
Passover, and slew him with the sword (Acts 12: 1-2); and thus he drank
the cup of which the Saviour had spoken to him prophetically (Matt.
20:23). As for Herod, the following year he went down to Caesarea, and,
as the Acts of the Apostles records: "Upon a set day, Herod, arrayed in
royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration" to the elders
of Tyre and Sidon; and the flatterers that surrounded him "gave a shout,
saying, 'it is the voice of a god, and not of a man.' And immediately an
Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory; and like
his grandfather (see Dec. 29) "he was eaten of worms and gave up the
spirit" (Acts 12:21-23)
