St. James the Greater
St. James, known as the Greater, in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, our Lord’s cousin, was St. John’s brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in 42 or 43 on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful.