James the Brother of the Lord

Feast · apostle

  • 3 May (Roman Catholic Church)
  • 23 October (Eastern Orthodox Church)

First bishop of Jerusalem, and the clearest case in the calendar of the identity knot the gloss the-three-jameses sets out. Byzantium keeps him on 23 October as the Brother of God and first hierarch of Jerusalem. Rome has no day for him under that description at all: because Jerome folded the brother of the Lord into James son of Alphaeus, the Western day for this James is 3 May, shared with Philip. Two churches, two dates, and underneath them two different answers to who he was.

After The Typikon, ch. 48, the Menaion — 23 October, «Ст҃а́гѡ а҆пⷭ҇ла і҆а́кѡва, бра́та бж҃їѧ», p. 213.

Commemorating

Where this is recorded

  • Roman Catholic Church — the day, after Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar
  • Eastern Orthodox Church — the day, after The Typikon, ch. 48, the Menaion — 23 October, «Ст҃а́гѡ а҆пⷭ҇ла і҆а́кѡва, бра́та бж҃їѧ», p. 213

Also on 23 October