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Saint James the Great (d. AD , Luke records that King Herod had James executed by sword ( Ac.12:1-2 ). SAINT JAMES AND HISPANIA Saint James the Great, the apostle, is not to be confused with the author of the Epistle Of James . St. James is the brother of John, the sons of Zebedee . Though the Acts Of The Apostles gives no hint of it, and though no work of the Patristic Literature mentions it, many people believe that James went to Hispania and preached Christianity there, establishing an Apostolic see. He traveled to Galicia , Spain ; Guimarães , Portugal ; and Rates ( Póvoa De Varzim ), Portugal . According to ancient local tradition, on January 2 of the year 40 A.D., the Virgin Mary appeared to St. James the Greater on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta , while he was preaching the Gospel in Spain. She supposedly appeared upon a pillar Nuestra Señora Del Pilar , and that pillar is conserved and venerated within the present Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Pillar , in Zaragoza , Spain. Following that apparition, St. James returned to Judea, where he was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa I in the year 44. The translation of his relics from Judea to . An even later tradition states that he miraculously appeared to fight for the Christian army during the Battle Of Clavijo during the Reconquista , and was henceforth called ''Matamoros'' ( Moor -slayer). ''Santiago y cierra España'' ("St James and strike for Spain") has been the traditional Battle Cry of Spanish armies. St. James the Moorslayer, one of the most valiant saints and knights the world ever had … has been given by God to Spain for its patron and protection. A similar miracle is related about Saint Emilianus (''san Millán''). The possibility that a cult of James was instituted to supplant the Galician cult of Priscillian (executed in 385) who was widely venerated across the north of Spain as a martyr to the bishops rather than as a heretic should not be overlooked. This was cautiously raised by Henry Chadwick in his book on Priscillian ( Chadwick 1976 ); it is not the official Roman Catholic view. The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' 1908, however, records "Although the tradition that James founded an apostolic see in Spain was current in the year 700, no certain mention of such tradition is to be found in the genuine writings of early writers nor in the early councils; the first certain mention we find in the ninth century, in Notker , a monk of St. Gall (''Martyrologia'', 25 July), Walafrid Strabo (''Poema de XII Apostoli''), and others." (The Blessed Notker died in 912.) interpretation of saint James as the Moor-killer from the Peru vian school of Cuzco . The pilgrim hat has become a Panama Hat and his mantle is that of his military order.]] The tradition was not unanimously admitted afterwards, while numerous modern scholars, following L. Duchesne, reject it. The Bollandist s however defended it (their '' Acta Sanctorum '', July, VI and VII, gives further sources). The suggestion began to be made from the 9th century that, as well as evangelizing in Spain, his body may have been brought to Compostela. No earlier tradition places the burial of St James in Hispania. A rival tradition, places the relics of the Apostle in the church of St- Saturnin at Toulouse, but it is not improbable that such sacred relics should have been divided between two churches. The authenticity of the sacred relics of Compostela was asserted in the Bull of Pope Leo XIII , "Omnipotens Deus," of November 1, 1884. Thus the possibility that the relics at Santiago de Compostela predate the cult there of St James is no longer open to discussion for believing Roman Catholics. The '' Catholic Encyclopedia '' (1908) registered several "difficulties" or bases for doubts of this tradition beyond the late appearance of the legend: St James suffered martyrdom ( Acts 12:1-2 ) in A.D. 44, and according to the tradition of the early Church, he had not yet left Jerusalem at this time (see Clement Of Alexandria , ''Stromateis'', VI; Apollonius, quoted by Eusebius , ''Hist. Eccl.'' VI.xviii).
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