today

James the Elder, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was one of the Twelve and the first of them to die for Christ. A Galilean fisherman called from his nets, he belonged with Peter and his brother to the inner circle of three who saw the Transfiguration and the agony in the garden. He once asked for a throne beside Christ in glory and was told instead that he would drink Christ's cup; he drank it first of all the apostles, beheaded in Jerusalem about the year 44.