Feast: May 11 (Traditional Roman Calendar)
St. Philip the Apostle
St. Philip was one of the first disciples called by Our Lord. He was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, the same city as Peter and Andrew. After encountering Christ, Philip immediately went to Nathanael and proclaimed: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth” (John 1:45).
Philip plays a modest yet significant role in the Gospels:
- He was present at the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, where Christ turned to Philip and tested him by asking how they would feed the multitude.
- He also appears in the Last Supper, when he asks Jesus to show them the Father. Christ replies with the profound words: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:8–9), affirming His divinity.
After Pentecost, tradition holds that Philip preached the Gospel in Phrygia (modern-day Turkey), particularly in the city of Hierapolis, where he suffered martyrdom. Some ancient accounts say he was crucified upside-down or stoned, and then died for the name of Christ.
His zeal, simplicity, and deep love of the Savior are virtues held forth for imitation.
St. James the Less (James the Just)
St. James is called “the Less” either because he was younger or shorter than James the Greater, the brother of John. He is identified with James, the son of Alphaeus, listed among the Twelve Apostles.
According to Sacred Tradition, he is also the same James who became the first Bishop of Jerusalem, sometimes called James the Just, known for his holiness, prayer, and ascetical life. The early Church Fathers—such as Eusebius and Hegesippus—describe him as a man of deep penance, known for spending so much time on his knees in prayer that they became hardened like a camel’s.
St. James presided over the early Church in Jerusalem and played a pivotal role in the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), where it was decided that Gentile converts need not observe all the Mosaic laws.
He authored the Epistle of St. James, found in the New Testament, a short but powerful work, filled with exhortations to live a faith that expresses itself in works, echoing Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount.
St. James was martyred in Jerusalem around the year 62 A.D., being thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple, then stoned, and finally struck on the head with a fuller’s club, which became his symbol in Christian art.
Shared Veneration and Relics
The Church has traditionally celebrated both apostles together on May 11. Their relics are venerated together in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome, an ancient basilica near the Roman Forum, where their bodies were brought in the early centuries of Christianity.
This joint celebration is a reminder of the apostolic foundation of the Church and a call to fidelity to the teachings, suffering, and zeal of the apostles who bore the Gospel to the world.
Liturgical Collect (Traditional Latin Mass)
Deus, qui nos per beátos Apóstolos tuos Philippum et Jacobum gloriósa confessióne sanctífica: da nobis, eórum précibus, grátiam tuam sequi, et gloriam sempitérnam assequi. Per Dóminum nostrum…
Translation:
O God, who dost sanctify us by the glorious confession of Thy holy Apostles Philip and James: grant us, through their prayers, to profit by the example of their faith and to share in the glory of their eternal home. Through Our Lord…