Patron saints are saints who were chosen as special protectors or guardians over certain things like occupations, illnesses, churches, countries, causes, in fact, anything that is important to us. The earliest records show that people and churches were named after apostles and martyrs as early as the fourth century.

The patron saint of our church and parish is Saint James who was son of Zebedee and Salome, brother of Saint John the Apostle, and may have been Jesus' cousin. He is actually called Saint James the Greater because he became an Apostle before Saint James the Lesser. He was a disciple of Saint John the Baptist and a fisherman by trade. James is described as one of the first disciples to join Jesus. He left everything when Christ called him to be a fisher of men, on the shores of the River Jordan.

James is depicted artistically in St. James's Church in two ways - through a mosaic of him, to the right, and through a shell. The mosaic was given in 1913 in memory of Jane Barnard and the dedication reads 'For many years a most devoted and unselfish parish worker'. It is interesting to note that a mosaic was at the time an acceptable artistic depiction of a saint when a statue or icon probably would not have been.

James is seen holding a staff - perhaps a pilgrim's staff? He is allegedly buried at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In the centuries following his death, James became associated with the evangelising of Spain, and as a powerful defender of Christianity against the Moors. The heyday of the cult of Santiago de Compostela was from the 12th to the 15th century, and the pilgrimage to Compostela became one of the most important of medieval Christendom. He is also holding a book inscribed with a cross with a shell in the middle of it. The book is presumably the Gospel - the good news that James was sent out to proclaim. A shell is another symbol of a pilgrim. He is, though, wearing robes which are quite highly decorated. Perhaps they are meant to suggest the robes of a priest, but equally it may be artistic licence.

The Cockle Shell over the Vicarage Door

James was one of the three Apostles, along with Peter and John, privileged to witness three miraculous events:
The healing of Peter's mother-in-law (Matthew 1:29-31),
The raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37-43),
The Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-8).

James was also present in the Garden of Gethsemane as one of the few apostles who accompanied Jesus there. He fell asleep as Jesus prayed before he was arrested on the orders of Pontius Pilate.

Jesus called James a 'son of thunder'. St. Luke's Gospel tells us that James impetuously called down fire from Heaven on the Samaritans because of their lack of faith. here is a well-known story in St. Mark's Gospel where the two brothers ask Jesus for the privilege of sitting at His right and left side in Heaven.

After Pentecost, James went on to preach the Gospel in Samaria and Judea, and then legend says he travelled a great distance to Spain to spread the good news there. It is said that Jesus's mother Mary appeared in a vision to James in Spain around 40 A.D. standing on a pillar supported by angels. She summoned him back to Jerusalem. The Acts of the Apostles records that he was martyred by beheading at the hands of Herod Agrippa around 43 AD. He was the first of the Apostles to be martyred. He was buried in Jerusalem but it is claimed that his relics were transferred to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 830 A.D. where they remain today. In the later middle ages his shrine at Compostela was one of the greatest centres of pilgrimage in Christendom and remains so today.

There are cockle shells on the beaches of Galacia in Northern Spain where his relics were brought on the way to Compostela and these were adopted as symbols of St. James from Medieval times up until the present day. Pilgrims who travel the same way are given a cockle shell at the end of their journey.

The Cockle Shell in the Hall Foundation Stone

The Cockle Shell on the White Pulpit Fall

The Cockle Shell in the White Altar Frontal