Prayer for the Feast of St. James
O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pout out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through Jesus Christ out Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one god, now and for ever. Amen.
~Lesser Feasts and Fasts
The feast day of St. James is celebrated on July 25 on the liturgical calendars of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and certain Protestant churches. This year we will celebrate on July 29 at our 9:30 worship service.
The Way of St. James
St. James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to legend, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. Legend says his relics ended up in Spain after a series of miraculous happenings: decapitated in Jerusalem with a sword by Herod Agrippa, his body was taken up by angels, and sailed in a rudderless, unattended boat to Ira Flavia in Iberia, where a massive rock closed around his relics, which were later removed to Compostela.
“The Way of St. James” has been the most popular pilgrimage for Western European Catholics from the Early Middle Ages onwards. Some 37,886 pilgrims registered in 2014 as having completed the final walk to Santiago to qualify for accreditation of the pilgrimage.
The compostela is a certificate of completion of the Camino de Santiago, and is issued to you by the Pilgrim’s Office in Santiago de Compostela. There are two types of certificate: one is in Latin, and is issued to pilgrims who declare that they did the camino for religious or spiritual purposes. Your name will also be written in Latin. The second certificate is for those who did it for cultural or historical purposes. This one is written in Spanish. Both are testament that you have done the Camino de Santiago. You will be asked for the purpose of your pilgrimage at the Pilgrim’s Office desk, and you will be given a form to fill in.
To receive it, you must have completed the last 100 kms of the camino if you are walking or on horseback, or the last 200 km if you rode a bicycle. It does not matter how many kms you have walked on the camino trail if you do not make it to Santiago de Compostela. For the officials of the Santiago Cathedral, the point of the pilgrimage is to reach the tomb of St. James. In the last 100 km (walking/horseback) or 200 km (cycling) you must also have at least two or three stamps per day in your pilgrim’s passport to prove that you did not get buses or taxis.
The Pilgrim’s Mass takes place every day at 12 pm. Quite often, the Botafumeiro is swung in dramatic fashion during the service. It is a huge censer filled with incense, and it swings as the Hymn of Santiago is sung. It is a wonderful ending to a deeply spiritual experience, and if you get lucky enough to witness it, you will never forget it.
Common symbols of St James include a traveler’s hat and a scallop shell. The scallop shell is used to mark a network of pilgrimage routes.
St. James Cake
Every bakery in Compostela and the surrounding region has these round cakes dusted with powdered sugar and stenciled with the sword-like St. James cross in their windows.
If you would like to celebrate the feast of our patron saint at home (or bring one of these cakes to Coffee Hour on the 29th) here is a recipe and a downloadable graphic of a St. James cross that you can cut out and use as a stencil.
This Recipe is gluten free.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound (1 3/4 cups) blanched whole almonds
- 6 large eggs, separated
- 1 1/4 cups superfine sugar
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 4 drops almond extract
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Preparation
- Finely grind the almonds in a food processor.
- With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the sugar to a smooth pale cream. Beat in the zests and almond extract. Add the ground almonds and mix very well.
- With clean beaters, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold them into the egg and almond mixture (the mixture is thick, so that you will need to turn it over quite a bit into the egg whites).
- Grease an 11-inch spring-form pan, preferably nonstick, with butter and dust it with flour. Pour in the cake batter, and bake in a preheated oven (350°F) for 40 minutes, or until it feels firm to the touch.
- Let cool before turning out.
- Just before serving, dust the top of the cake with confectioners’ sugar. Or, if you like, cut a St. James cross out of paper. Place it in the middle of the cake, and dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar, then remove the paper. St James Cross Cake Stencil