by Alan S. Cajes
The Municipality of Batuan (my hometown) in Bohol, Philippines is celebrating the feast of Saint James the Apostle on July 25. Saint James is the Patron of
Laborers. He is the brother of Saint John
the Evangelist.
Saint James was the first of the Apostles who suffered martyrdom in AD
44 after preaching the Gospel to the dispersed Jews. Like Simon Peter, Saints
James and John were given special names - Sons of Thunder - for their fiery temper
and evangelical zeal. He, like
Saints John and Peter, had the rare privilege of witnessing the transfiguration
of Jesus, who spoke to Moses and Elijah, as the voice of God spoke from a
cloud.
Saint James's representation as Santiago Matamoros (the Moor-slayer) shows him riding a horse and holding a sword. This is a “symbol of the fight between
Christianity and Islam and the reconquest of Spain from eight centuries of
Moorish rule before 1492". Legend has it that James the Great “appeared to
Christian troops fighting Moorish army at the Battle of Clavijo in 844”. This
view is now rejected as “thoroughly controversial”. - Quotes from Sophia
Deboick, The Enigma of Saint James (2010)
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