Vocation: Apostles

Attributes: 

James: a bat or a fuller’s club as well as one or more stones, or an image of the Temple.  He is also sometimes depicted with a book or a scroll, a pastoral staff or a walking stick, or a green branch or palm.  He is sometimes represented by a saw. 

Philip: His symbols are a walking stick, a book or scroll, loaves of bread, a budded cross, a spear or lance, and a pile of stones.

Patronage: 

James: Along with St. Joseph, he is the patron saint of the dying.  He is also the patron saint of fullers, those who clean, shrink, and thicken cloth; hatters; and druggists

Philip: the patron saint of Luxembourg and Uruguay. 

Canonization: pre-congregation

There is very little known about these two apostles outside of the passages in Scripture which refer to them. 

There is more known about Philip than James. Most likely, he was from Bethsaida in Galilee and he brought Nathanael to Jesus. Philip was present at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, during which he said that “two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” It is thought that Philip was fluent in Greek when the Hellenes, Greek-speaking Jews, approached him first in order to talk to Jesus. Philip is also rebuked after saying, “Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us,” to which Jesus responds, “Have I been with you for so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” 

People believed that after he received the Holy Spirit he traveled to Phrygia (modern-day Turkey) and possibly to Greece. Like almost all the apostles, he was martyred for his faith, though the accounts of his death differ. Some think he was stoned, others that he was crucified and then stabbed through with a lance. Another account claims he was sawed in half. 

James, the son of Alpheus, also known as James the “Less” or the “Lesser” is not the brother of John. Some people believe him to be one of Jesus' cousins, as in Matthew 13:55: “[Are not] his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?” We know that Jesus appeared to him after the Resurrection. Some scholars theorize that the Letter of James was authored by him, though others deny it. 

There are many theories about why he is called the “Lesser.” Some state it is merely to differentiate him from James the “Greater.” Others say that James “the Less” may have been shorter or younger than the other James. 

He is thought to have been the first bishop of Jerusalem and died a martyr’s death by being thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple by a group of scribes and Pharisees. Another tradition holds that he was sawed in half.

Sts. Philip & James, pray for us!