July 25, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
St. James is one of the most depicted ammong the Twelve Apostles, next only to Peter and Andrew. Extreme left, St James by Rembrandt; fourth from left, by Andrea del Sarto; next three photos, James as Santiago Matamoros and as patron of pilgrims; the two on the right, St James, by Alonso Cano and El Greco.
ST. JAMES THE GREATER (SANTIAGO EL MAYOR), Apostle and Martyr, Patron Saint of Spain
Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis on June 21, 2006 to this saint,
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060621...
mentioned in the Bible as third in seniority among the apostles after the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew. Indeed, he and his younger brother John (the Beloved, also thought to be the Evangelist John) were disciples of John the Baptist, and were the second pair of fishermen brothers called by Jesus to join him. James became the first of the Apostles to be martyred, beheaded by order of Herod Agrippa in 44 AD, as cited in the Acts. Before that, legend has it that he had gone to Iberia to preach the Gospel, where Mary appeared to him atop a pillar (now conserved in the Cathedral of Zaragoza, main shrine of Nuestra Senora del Pilar), and that he subsequently returned to Judea where he met his death. Subsequently, one version has his body miraculously transported by angels to Iberia where it was enclosed by a rock in Compostela; alternatively, that disciples carried the body by boat to Spain, landed on the coast of Galicia and took it inland to Compostela. The next Spanish legend concerning James (Jacobus in Latin, Iago in Spanish, hence Sant'Iago=Santiago) was that he appeared on horseback in the 10th-century battle of Clavijo to lead a vastly outnumbered Spanish army to defeat the Moors. Since then, he became known as Santiago Matamoros (killer of Moors), giving rise also to what has become the traditional battle cry of Spanish armed forces, "Santiago y cierra Espana!" (St James, and close ranks for Spain). The saint's relics were discovered in Compostela in 814 by a hermit, thus starting the tradition of the pilgrimage to the Galician town which was the third major pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages, after Jerusalem and Rome. In Europe the routes to Compostela passing through France and Spain are known as the Camino de Santiago. The present Cathedral of St. James in Compostela was begun in 1075. In 1884, Leo XIII issued a papal bull declaring the authenticity of the relics in Compostela. [A rival claim to be the burial place of St. James is made by the Cathedral of St. Sernin in Toulouse.]
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml
In today's OR, there is an inside-page interview with the diocesan coordinator of the Pope's visit to Santiago de Compostela on November 6, as well as the text of the Pope's letter designating Cardinal Marc Ouellet as his personal legate to the fourth centenary celebration of the baptism of the Migmaq Indian chief in Nova Scotia, Canada. Page 1 international news: North Korea threatens to use a nuclear bomb to protest US-South Korea military exercises which have been held yearly for decades; 70,000 more flee wartorn North Kivu province in the Democratic Congo; and India launches 25-euro PC to make information technology widely available in the world's second most populous nation.
THE POPE'S DAY
Angelus at Castel Gandolfo - The Holy Father spoke on the Lord's Prayer narrated in today's Gospel
and makes reference to Abraham's prayer to God invoking him to save the just in the city of Sodom -
it could be his reference to the Panorama article on gay priests apparently employed in the Roman Curia
who pursue the homosexual lifestyle outside work hours. He also greeted the Spanish people who celebrate
today the Feast of St. James, and expressed his condolences for the nightclub deaths in Duisburg, Germany.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/07/2010 00:19]