St. James the Greater

Who they were

James, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was in the inner three for everything: the Transfiguration, Gethsemane, and the raising of Jairus's daughter. He earned, with his brother, the nickname that tells you what the Lord was working with, Boanerges, sons of thunder, awarded after they proposed calling down fire on an inhospitable village.

The thunder was eventually spent well. James became the first of the Twelve to die for the faith, beheaded by Herod Agrippa around 44, the only apostolic martyrdom recorded in Scripture itself. The tradition that his relics rest at Compostela in Spain built one of the wonders of the Christian world, the Camino de Santiago, walked continuously for over a thousand years and walked today in the hundreds of thousands by atheists, seekers, and the devout together, scallop shell on the pack, which is exactly the company James kept.

Why people turn to St. James the Greater

Pilgrims, both the literal ones planning a Camino and the figurative ones on any long deliberate road. Arthritis and joint sufferers by old tradition, which is fitting for the patron of long walking: the knees that hurt on the Camino pray to its patron.

How to ask their intercession

Before the trip, meaning any intentional journey. A decade per walking day is an old pilgrim rhythm. And for thunder tempered people, James is proof the Lord drafts them.