May 3: Saints Philip and James the Less
United in martyrdom for Christ
The Apostles Philip and James the Less are remembered on the same day because their relics were placed together in the Basilica of the Holy Twelve Apostles in Rome.
We know very little about James, son of Alphaeus, called the Lesser, because he was smaller in stature than James, son of Zebedee and brother of John the Evangelist. The only certain news is that he was one of the first disciples of Jesus.
Tradition has it that he was a relative of Jesus, perhaps that cousin referred to in the Gospel of Matthew (13, 55). He had a notable influence on the Council of Jerusalem, in which the missionary vocation of Peter for the circumcised and of Paul for the uncircumcised were established. In fact, a form of division of the missionary field took place: Peter towards the Jews and Paul towards the pagans.
After Peter's departure, James is spoken of as the first Bishop of Jerusalem.
Tradition has it that James was killed in the year 62. The High Priest of the Sanhedrin, Hanan, started a riot to kill James, who was thrown from the walls of the Temple and finished off with blows from a stick.
The other Apostle, Philip, was a fisherman from Bethsaida, in Galilee. He was among the first disciples of Jesus. The evangelist John mentions him in various episodes: before the multiplication of the loaves:
“When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip,“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat? He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little [bit].”
We find him mentioned again after Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, when some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus approached Philip (Jn 12:20-22) and it was Philip himself who, during the Last Supper, asked the Master to show them the Father (Jn 14:8).
Other biographical data about him are not verifiable. Tradition has it that after Pentecost, Philip crossed Asia Minor, arriving as far as Scythia, now Ukraine, and then in Phrygia, now Turkey. In the capital, Hierapolis, he was martyred on a decussate cross, that is, in the shape of an X, and with his head facing downwards. After various events, his relics were transported to Rome and buried in the Basilica of the Holy Twelve Apostles, together with those of James.