Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles
May 3
Lives of the Saints
by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. edition
[1894]
May 1.—STS. PHILIP and JAMES, Apostles.
PHILIP was one of the first chosen disciples of Christ. On the way from Judea to Galilee Our Lord found Philip, and said, “Follow Me.” Philip straightway obeyed; and then in his zeal and charity sought to win Nathaniel also, saying, “We have found Him of Whom Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth;” and when Nathaniel in wonder asked, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” Philip simply answered, “Come and see,” and brought him to Jesus.
Another characteristic saying of this apostle is preserved for us by St. John. Christ in His last discourse had spoken of His Father; and Philip exclaimed, in the fervor of his thirst for God, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough.”
St. James the Less, the author of an inspired epistle, was also one of the Twelve. St. Paul tells us that he was favored by a special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection.
On the dispersion of the apostles among the nations, St. James was left as Bishop of Jerusalem; and even the Jews held in such high veneration his purity, mortification, and prayer, that they named him the Just. The earliest of Church historians has handed down many traditions of St. James’s sanctity. He was always a virgin, says Hegesippus, and consecrated to God. He drank no wine, wore no sandals on his feet, and but a single garment on his body. He prostrated himself so much in prayer that the skin of his knees was hardened like a camel’s hoof.
The Jews, it is said, out of respect, would touch the hem of his garment. He was indeed a living proof of his own words, “The wisdom that is from above first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, full of mercy and good fruits.”
He sat beside St. Peter and St. Paul at the Council of Jerusalem; and when St. Paul at a later time escaped the fury of the Jews by appealing to Caesar, the people took vengeance on James, and crying, “The just one hath erred,” stoned him to death.
Reflection.—The Church commemorates on the same day Saints Philip and James, whose bodies lie side by side at Rome. They represent to us two aspects of Christian holiness. The first preaches faith, the second works; the one holy aspirations, the other purity of heart.
Saints Philip and James, Apostles red Feast 1 Cor 15:1-8/Jn 14:6-14 (561) Pss Prop.
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/philip-736
CATHOLICISM SAINTS ST. PHILIP
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/james-the-lesser-622
CATHOLICISM SAINTS ST. JAMES THE LESSER
*St. Philip the Apostle–Rubens.
Saint Philip, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, carries a cross on his shoulder, in this painting by Peter Paul Rubens.
**Philip the Apostle (Greek: Φίλιππος; Aramaic: ܦܝܠܝܦܘܣ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲗⲓⲡⲡⲟⲥ, Philippos) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Later Christian traditions describe Philip as the apostle who preached in Greece, Syria, and Phrygia. In the Roman Rite, the feast day of Philip, along with that of James the Less, was traditionally observed on 1 May, the anniversary of the dedication of the church dedicated to them in Rome (now called the Church of the Twelve Apostles). The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Philip’s feast day on 14 November. One of the Gnostic codices discovered in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 bears Philip’s name in its title, on the bottom line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_the_Apostle
***St. James the Lesser – Ribera.
This image by artist J. Ribera shows the Apostle Saint James the Lesser.
https://restoredtraditions.com/products/st-james-lesser-ribera?_pos=4&_sid=d7fa09776&_ss=r
****James the Less (Greek: Ἰάκωβος ὁ μικρός Iakōbos ho mikros) is a figure of early Christianity, one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus. He is also called “the Minor”, “the Little”, “the Lesser”, or “the Younger”, according to translation. He is not to be confused with James the Great (also called “James the Elder”). He is identified by some as James, son of Alphaeus and as James, brother of Jesus, thought of by Jerome and those who followed him as really the cousin of Jesus. James the Less has traditionally been commemorated along with St. Philip in the Western Christian calendars. Their feast day was observed on May 1 until 1955, when it was moved to May 11 to accommodate the Feast of St Joseph the Worker on May 1. A later revision of the calendar moved the feast back to May 3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_the_Less
But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps.
1 Pet 2:20–21