The apostle James, brother of John the Evangelist, is called James the Greater because he was called to the apostolate before the other James. He was also the first of all the apostles called through martyrdom to the kingdom of heaven.
He was quite familiar with Christ and was admitted with Peter and John to more secret matters, as appears in Christ’s Transfiguration, in Christ’s raising of the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter, and in the expression in the garden of his intense grief over the approaching Passion.
After the coming of the Holy Spirit, James went to Spain to preach. When he saw that the wild people did not receive his teaching—for he converted only nine, or according to others only two, to the faith—he took those two with him and returned to Jerusalem.
He preached fervently, showing from sacred Scripture that Jesus Christ was the true Son of God. He refuted the scribes and doctors of the Law with powerful arguments and confirmed his teaching by miracles.
They offered a sum of money to a magician named Hermogenes and asked him to dispute with James and confound him. Hermogenes promised to do this not in person but through his disciple Philetus.
He therefore sent Philetus with the Jews to James. When Philetus disputed with James, James overcame him in everything and worked many miracles in his sight.
Pierced by these things, Philetus returned to his teacher Hermogenes and greatly commended James for his irrefutable teaching. He also related the wonders performed and urged Hermogenes to adhere to James, for Philetus himself had resolved to become his disciple.
Indignant, Hermogenes bound Philetus by magical art so that he could not move from that place, saying: “Now we shall see whether this James can liberate you.”
Philetus made this known to James through a messenger. James sent him a handkerchief and said: “Let him receive it and say, ‘The Lord looses those who are fettered, and he himself raises up those who are cast down.’” When Philetus did this, he was immediately freed.
Mocking Hermogenes, Philetus went to James, was instructed in the faith, was baptized, and followed him.
Angered, Hermogenes adjured demons and commanded them to bring James and Philetus, his former disciple, bound before him, so that his other disciples, after being turned away from him, would not dare mock him.
Many demons, adjured by Hermogenes, went forth. When they drew near the dwelling of most blessed James, they began to cry: “Apostle of God, have mercy on us, for we are severely tormented.”
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
James asked them: “Why have you come to me?”
They answered: “Hermogenes sent us to bring you and Philetus, his former disciple, bound to him. But when we approached, an angel of the Lord bound us with fiery chains and inflicted torment upon us.”
James said: “May that same angel of God release you. Go to Hermogenes and bring him to me bound, but without doing him any injury.”
They did this immediately. They seized Hermogenes, bound his hands behind his back, and set him before James. They asked James to give them permission to harm him and to avenge both their injuries and his.
James said: “Why do you not hold Philetus, as Hermogenes commanded you?”
The demons answered: “Not only can we not touch your disciple Philetus; we cannot even touch an ant in your house.”
The Apostle therefore commanded the demons to depart. He said to Philetus: “Because our Lord commanded us to return good for evil, release Hermogenes from the demons’ bonds, since he first bound you through their enchantments.”
When Hermogenes had been released, James said to him: “Our Lord does not desire forced services but voluntary ones. See, you are free. Do what pleases you and go wherever you wish.”
Hermogenes replied: “I know the wrath of demons. When I leave you, they will kill me unless you give me some protection.”
James gave him the staff that he carried on his journeys. Hermogenes returned home, pierced in heart, gathered all the books of magical art, and brought them to James. Throwing himself at the Apostle’s feet, he said: “Liberator of souls, have mercy on me, and receive as a disciple one whom you had as an enemy in the past.”
Converted and baptized, Hermogenes cast those magical books into the sea at the Apostle’s command. He followed James so perfectly that he himself worked miracles in Jesus’s name.
When the Jews heard of Hermogenes’s conversion, they were moved with jealousy and went to James, reproving him because he preached that Jesus was the Son of God. James demonstrated from the Scriptures that this was most true, and because of his words many believed in Christ.
But Abyathar, high priest that year, stirred up a popular uprising against him. They seized James and delivered him to Herod, king of Judea, to be killed.
By Herod’s sentence James was beheaded, as is said, on the day on which Christ was both incarnate and suffered, after one full year had elapsed. Luke also mentions this in the Acts of the Apostles, saying: “Herod killed James, John’s brother, with the sword,” Acts 12.
As James was being led to the place of his passion, he healed along the way a paralytic who commended himself to him, invoking Jesus’s name.
A certain scribe named Josias, who was leading James to be beheaded, saw the miracle and believed. Abyathar obtained from Herod that Josias should be beheaded with James. This was done after James baptized him at the place of the passion.
At night James’s disciples seized his body and carried it to the seashore. They found a little ship divinely prepared, boarded it with the body, and entrusted themselves to God’s governance. They reached the coast of Spain, entered the city of Compostela, and honorably buried him in a church built in his honor.
How they approached the princess of that region, named Lupa, to obtain an honorable tomb for the Apostle; how she treacherously sought to destroy them in various ways; how she believed after seeing miracles concerning these matters; and how she caused a church to be built for him are omitted for brevity.
The devotion infused into the minds of the faithful for visiting his shrine is astonishing. The decree of the Church so firmly confirmed it that no one circa [read: citra] the Apostolic See can dispense from such a vow.
It is as though divine generosity supplied after his death the honor and glory from the faithful that, because of the brevity of his life, had been granted to him less than to the other apostles. His relics are visited and honored more than those of all the other apostles.
Many wonders have been shown at various times in connection with this visitation or pilgrimage. One in particular will be recorded, in which a marvelous deception of the devil also appears.
A man from Lyon who was greatly devoted to the Apostle visited his shrine many times. Once, when he had begun this pilgrimage, he fell into fornication during the night.
Afterward the devil appeared to him in the form of Saint James and said: “I am the apostle James, whose tomb you have often visited. But this pilgrimage of yours is not pleasing to me on this occasion, because you have fornicated and have not confessed. You must therefore return home, confess your sin, and afterward complete the journey in purity of conscience.”
The man believed everything and decided to return. But while he slept, the same devil appeared again and said that the sin he had committed could not be forgiven through confession unless, in satisfaction for it, he cut off his genitals. He would be even more blessed as a martyr if he also killed himself in James’s honor.
When the man awoke, he thought that blessed James had revealed all this to him. He cut off his genitals and also killed himself.
When his companions awoke and saw him dead, they feared that they would be seized as guilty of the crime and fled as quickly as possible.
As his funeral rites were being prepared, since the truth of what had happened was unknown, he suddenly returned to life. He began to speak and told everyone the manner of his death and the devil’s deception.
He added that, when his soul departed from his body, demons hurriedly carried it toward Rome in order to bring it to hell because of his self-murder. Blessed James followed them, rebuking the demons for such fraud.
When they came to a certain meadow, they found the glorious Virgin, the Lord’s mother, remaining there with many saints. Blessed James presented before the Virgin his complaint about the fraud that the devil had perpetrated against his devotee.
The Virgin rebuked the devil and commanded him to go into the abyss; she restored the man to life and health. The scars of the wounds remained to establish faith in the miracle. When the man found his companions, he related everything to them in order.