The Apostle Saint James: From the Sea of Galilee to the End of the World | EP254

Today we look at the story behind a tomb in Galicia that changed Europe. It is linked to Saint James, who was called the Son of Thunder because he was impulsive, ambitious, and passionate. Honestly, he did not seem like a saint. He once asked for a place of honour, but his time with Jesus changed him. How did a man like that come to guide thousands of pilgrims centuries later? Stay until the end and you will understand not only who the Apostle Saint James was, but also why the tiredness, loneliness, and silence of the Camino bring clarity. Before we begin, what burden would you leave on your Camino if you knew you would never pick it up again?

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The Apostle Saint James was not born a saint. He was born into life on a fishing boat. History tells us that he was the son of Zebedee and Salome, a fisherman from Galilee, and the brother of John the Evangelist. He was called James the Greater only to distinguish him from the other James. Jesus called him to become a fisher of people, and he left his nets to become an apostle. But he had a fiery personality. The Gospels say that Jesus called him and his brother Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder.” In other words, he was not a calm man. He was the kind of man who made his mistakes out loud.

Even so, Jesus invited him into his closest circle. He was there at the Transfiguration. He was in Jairus’s house when everyone said the girl was dead. He was in Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to stay awake with him. This brings me back to a recurring topic on our podcast: the stories we explore are not just illustrations. They are another kind of stored information—another kind of data. They contain context, emotion, and details that numbers cannot capture. James’s story shows how this apostle experienced glory and pain at close range. He did not learn about them in theory; he lived them from inside the apostolic circle. This matters when we try to understand the Camino, because the pilgrim also comes face to face with personal glory and pain.

To put James’s story in context, we move to the year 44, when King Herod Agrippa ordered his beheading in Jerusalem. This made him the first apostle to be martyred—the first to pay with his life for his devotion. A man who once wanted a throne ended up giving his life for his faith. This was James’s first great transformation: from wanting to be first to becoming the first to lose everything, including his life, for what he believed.

Here is something that is often misunderstood today: the New Testament does not say that James preached in Spain. However, from the early centuries, people shared the idea that after Christ’s Ascension he brought the Christian message to the western Iberian Peninsula. In the late sixth or early seventh century, the Breviarium Apostolorum, an apocryphal manuscript, became the first text to mention these events. It says that James preached in Hispania and was buried in a place identified with Galicia called Arca Marmarica. In the eighth century, the Cantabrian monk Beatus of Liébana presented James as the protector of Hispania in his Commentary on the Apocalypse and the hymn O Dei Verbum. The main idea was clear: from that point on, Spain had a protector.

Tradition says that after James was martyred in Jerusalem, his disciples recovered his body and put it on a boat. Guided by divine providence, they crossed the sea from Jaffa to Iria Flavia, now known as Padrón in Galicia. There they asked Queen Lupa for a place to bury him. She sent them to the Roman governor at Duio, who imprisoned them. An angel freed them, and they managed to bury James in the forest of Libredón, where Compostela later developed. The first written reference to this journey appears in a ninth-century letter attributed to Pope Leo. Its authenticity is disputed, but it reflects a tradition that was already well established. You do not need to decide today whether every detail is literal. What cannot be denied is the effect this letter had…

This brings us to the years 813 to 823, when the hermit Pelagius saw a shower of stars over the forest of Libredón on several nights. According to legend, James appeared to him in a dream and revealed the location of his tomb. Pelagius told Theodemir, the bishop of Iria Flavia, who found a Roman mausoleum containing three bodies. They were identified as James and his disciples Theodore and Athanasius. King Alfonso II of Asturias ordered a church to be built around the tomb. This marked the beginning of the pilgrimage and the tradition centred on Saint James. Modern archaeology has confirmed that Bishop Theodemir was a historical person and that the Roman mausoleum found in Compostela is ancient. History and the land tell the story together. But as you can now see, the question is not only where James is buried. The question is why people walk the Camino and return changed.

By the eighth century, the Kingdom of Asturias already considered James its patron, partly because people believed he had brought the Christian message to the Iberian Peninsula. In the Middle Ages, a legend developed about the apostle appearing at the Battle of Clavijo in the ninth century, where he was said to have helped King Ramiro I. Historically, this is unlikely: it does not appear in records from that time and was first mentioned centuries later. However, it strengthened the image of James as miles Christi, a soldier of Christ and protector of Spain against Muslim rule. From around the year 1000, the Christian advance and the crusading spirit helped his following spread internationally. Pilgrims from across Europe strengthened Compostela as a spiritual and political centre. They began walking to Santiago de Compostela, and the Camino changed their lives. They left their differences behind and let go of spiritual pain. The importance of the movement does not come from proving exactly what happened. It comes from the changes that this belief produced in the way a whole people lived and acted.

This leads to the first reason the route became popular and the Camino came to be seen as life-changing: the physical effort is a spiritual challenge in itself. Historically, the Camino has been understood as an effort that prepares the walker for reflection. Put simply, tiredness clears you out. When you walk for days or weeks, away from your routines, with blisters and nights in noisy hostels, your mind finally becomes quiet. All that remains is the next step, the next day, and the next stage. In that silence, your true priorities appear. In other words, pain strips away your masks. In daily life—at the office, at school, or doing chores—you never stop. On the Camino, you cannot escape. All you have is reflection.

The second reason is the deepest one for believers. Since the time of the Kingdom of Asturias, many people have walked to ask for or give thanks for a blessing: good health, a child, or freedom from guilt. Tradition links the Camino with great forgiveness, reconciliation, and the remission of penalties, especially during a Holy Year. This is not magic. It is the sacrifice of repentance expressed through walking. Pilgrims learn to let go and to help the next person on the road. Each day becomes a wordless confession: I was wrong, and I want to begin again. The Church supports pilgrims through prayer and the sacraments, the Pilgrim’s Mass, and the embrace of the Apostle Saint James. As a close friend of the Lord, he is experienced as a nearby intercessor—not as an official in heaven, but as an older brother who has already passed through thunder and martyrdom.

The final reason is community. Today, people from around the world leave their daily routines behind. On the Camino, they share meals with strangers from different countries and learn that quality of life also means offering hospitality, listening, and caring for the person who walks more slowly. Hostels, volunteer hosts, and shared rituals all support this sense of community. Arriving at the square together is not just tourism. It is a symbolic ending: we did it together, and we left our prejudices behind. That is why many people experience it as a new beginning.

So who is James, and why does his Camino improve lives? James is the Son of Thunder who learned to serve, even to the point of martyrdom. His Camino improves the lives of those who walk it because it brings together three kinds of healing that we rarely experience at the same time: physical sacrifice that quiets the noise, grace that releases guilt, and a community that supports you when you want to give up. You do not return from the Camino with new legs. You return with new priorities. You return stronger and ready to share what you have learned. Remember this: James defended his ideal until the end of his life in Jerusalem. You can begin defending yours with the next step you take. That is what quality and leadership are about.

That is all for this week. Thank you to all my pilgrim friends who especially requested this episode. I dedicate it to you with great affection; you are the stars of Galicia. Thank you as well for your reviews of my books Principles of Quality, Life Quality Projects, and The Quality Mindset. Until next time, stay excellent, keep improving, and let us keep walking….

References (Harvard style)

• Beatus of Liébana (c. 784). O Dei Verbum. In: Commentary on the Apocalypse.
• Breviarium Apostolorum (late sixth–seventh century). Apocryphal manuscript about the apostles’ preaching and burial places.
• Isidore of Seville (c. 650). De ortu et obitu patrum (interpolation).
• Museum of Pilgrimage and Santiago (n.d.). Discovery and Identification of the Apostle’s Body. Pérez-Ramallo, P. et al. (2024). ‘Unveiling Bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flavia?’. Antiquity. Cambridge University Press. ArteHistoria (n.d.). The Apostle.