By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint James was a Christian of Christian parents, living in the city of Beth Lapat, in the land of the Persians, of an honorable and illustrious lineage, and greatly honored by King Yazdegerd. For this reason, namely, because the king of the Persians loved him very much, he distanced himself from the Christian faith and followed the king, thus leading to perdition by denying Christ. But when his mother and wife broke off their communion with him, because he preferred the love of the king to the love of Christ, and for temporary glory he chose eternal shame and condemnation – something they accused him of in letters they sent him – he was wounded in soul and distanced himself from the vain religion of the king, whereupon he began to weep for all the sins he had committed, as he had apostatized from Christ. For this reason, he was brought to trial, while the king was very unhappy with the event. The result was that he suffered a bitter death, with the division of the harmony of the body: the hands and feet and arms, little by little, so that only the head and the torso remained. Then they also removed his head with a knife.
The mother and wife of Saint James played the role of the anointer, that is, his spiritual trainer, when the Saint’s emotional attachment to the king of the Persians led him away from the faith of Christ. As the Hymnographer notes: “You wisely accepted the admonition of your most intimate people, and joyfully proceeded towards the martyric struggles.” And: “you have convinced the good wife… you have proved to be a wonderful martyr.” As was the case especially during the years of the Turkish occupation, when this specific institution emerged - those who had denied Christ to be guided by experienced spiritual men, the so-called anointers (aleiptes), so that after preparation they would go to martyrdom, confessing their faith where they denied Christ - so it was with James: without being aware of their specific role, his mother and wife, spontaneously, became God’s instrument for him to convert again, and even attain martyrdom. And what martyrdom? Such that the Hymnographer urges us to groan and weep, seeing what he went through with the confession of Christ. "Let us all groan in our souls, shedding tears, bitterly beholding the Martyr being tortured."
However, this terrible martyrdom that he suffered – “your fingers and hands and arms were cut off, likewise your feet and shins, up to your thighs you persevered” – indicative of his genuine conversion and repentance, made him appear as a new star from Persia, guiding the rest of the Christians. Saint Theophanes, the Hymnographer of Saint James, dazzled by his terrible martyrdom, considers him as equivalent to the star that guided the Magi from Persia at the Nativity of the Lord. Saint James brings us before Christ through his martyrdom. His passion projects this, which is certainly understood as a martyrdom of “communion of the sufferings of Christ”. “…James of Persia, who shone upon us, like a star appearing to the Magi, and who guided us to true knowledge.” And: “Christ raised up the divine James among people as a newly appeared star… and through him he drove away the darkness of error." The parallelism that the Hymnographer makes, due to the occasion given to him by the Persian origin of James, is amazing. For in this way he emphasizes in a truly unique way the power of Christian martyrdom: the death of a Christian gives the greatest impetus to the faith of people. He is truly a light that guides those in darkness.
However, Theophanes, in addition to the above, makes two more important points. First, Saint James ultimately proves to be truly intelligent with his conversion. While a secular man, with criteria of unbelief, would say that by taking advantage of his relationship with the king, as well as the position and wealth that this acquaintance secured for him, then he was truly intelligent, with the criteria of faith things are completely different. And rightly so: intelligent is ultimately the one who prefers the eternal over the temporary and perishable. And this is what Saint James did. “You despised, crown-bearer James, because you had discernment, the perishable and fleeting nature of temporal things, and as a wise man, you preferred the immutability of eternal things." How much we must emphasize this truth even today, when unfortunately we cannot see the superiority of eternal things over temporary and perishable things. And we are also Christians.
Secondly, Saint James, as the Hymnography presents him, also proclaims a truth that is not taken into account as much as it should be: whatever a believer suffers for the sake of his faith, so much what he suffers is compensated for by God and becomes his glory. Like the Cross of the Lord: the Passion became His glory. In the words of the Hymnographer himself: “Although you cut off my sensible members, yet I have Christ, who becomes all things to me noetically." In other words: the believer, even if he sees everything taken from him (for example today, his salary, his pension, his social benefits, his job), as long as he has Christ, as long as his faith is alive, he will see Him replace what he lost in a miraculous way. But we become tiresome every time: do we have His faith? Do we hold on to Christ?
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
