By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint James was the son of Zebedee and the brother of John the Theologian. After the calling of Andrew and Peter, he too was called by the Savior Himself, together with his brother, to become His disciple. They immediately left both their father and the boat — in a word, everything — and followed the Lord. And the Lord loved them so greatly that to the one He granted to recline upon His breast at the time of the Secret Supper, and to the other to drink the cup which He Himself drank. Saints James and John showed such zeal for Christ that they desired to call down fire from Heaven and destroy the unbelievers. And perhaps they would even have done so, if His goodness had not restrained them. For this reason, therefore, the Lord would take them, together with the foremost Peter, always with Him in His prayers and in His other divine dispensations, initiating them into the higher and more secret teachings of the doctrines. This blessed James, after the Passion and the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, because Herod could not endure that he spoke with boldness and proclaimed the saving preaching, seized him and killed him with the sword, making him the second martyr after Stephen, thus sending him to the Master Christ.

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