James the Less

Saint James the Apostle, the son of Alphaeus, called in Church tradition also James the Less, was one of the twelve apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 9 October. The Gospels say little about him, and what is known of his preaching and death comes from tradition, not from Scripture.

In the New Testament

James appears in all four lists of the apostles as "the son of Alphaeus," to distinguish him from the apostle James the son of Zebedee (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). The Gospels tell nothing else about him.

The name "the Less" comes from the Gospel of Mark, which mentions at the Crucifixion "Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses" (15:40). She may be the Mary of Clopas named in the Gospel of John (19:25), and Alphaeus may be the same man as Clopas, but the identification is not certain. Church tradition counts him a brother of the apostle and evangelist Matthew, whose father was also called Alphaeus (Mark 2:14).

Distinct from James the brother of the Lord

Saint Jerome and other Western writers considered James of Alphaeus to be one and the same person as James "the brother of the Lord," the first bishop of Jerusalem, called the Just. The Orthodox Church honours the two separately: James of Alphaeus on 9 October and James the brother of the Lord on 23 October. The Eastern tradition counts the brother of the Lord as the author of the General Epistle of James.

Preaching and death

After the descent of the Holy Spirit, James preached, according to tradition together with the Apostle Andrew, in Judea, Edessa, Gaza and Eleutheropolis, healing the sick and bringing many to the faith. The Church's account says that he finished his apostolic work in the Egyptian city of Ostracina, where pagans crucified him, so that he received the crown of martyrdom.

The traditions do not agree. A writing attributed to Hippolytus of Rome says that he was stoned in Jerusalem and buried beside the temple, and other accounts bring him to Persia or to North Africa. What can be said with certainty is only that he was one of the Twelve and that the Church honours him as a martyr.

Veneration

The Church remembers him on 9 October. In the West he was long commemorated together with the Apostle Philip, on 1 May, and later on 3 May.