JAMES THE LESSER

- Feast day – May 3

- Galilee, Israel
- There are many titles given to James, that is – the son of Alphaeus; James, the
brother of the Lord; James the son of Mary, brother of Jesus; James, the brother of
Jude; James the Lesser; and James, the bishop of Jerusalem. They’re all the same
person, the saint known as James the Less.
- Brother of Jude; cousin of Jesus
- He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem
- He was martyred in 62 AD. He was thrown from the walls of the Temple for refusing
to renounce his faith in Christ be being beaten and stoned to death
- His mission was to convert the Gentiles into Christianity as well as, he preached and
made Jesus know to the people of Jerusalem.
Key Verses
Matthew 10:2-4
The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter,
and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and
Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and
Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. (ESV)
Mark 3:16-19
He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of
Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons
of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James
the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who
betrayed him. (ESV)
Luke 6:13-16
And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he
named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and
John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of
Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas
Iscariot, who became a traitor. (ESV)
ST. MATTHIAS
- Feast Day, May 14
- Was born in Judea
- Matthias the Apostle was one of the twelve main disciples of Jesus Christ. He’s the
only disciple who wasn’t personally called by Jesus. Instead, the other disciples
chose him through casting lots to replace Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus and died
shortly after Jesus was crucified.
- Matthias is only mentioned by name in Acts 1:23 (So they put forward two men, Joseph
called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and aMatthias.) and Acts 1:26, but from
that point on, whenever the Twelve apostles are referred to collectively, he’s with
them. Beyond these two mentions in Acts, the New Testament tells us nothing about
him. However, we do know that he met the requirements Peter established for
replacing Judas: he’d followed Jesus since his baptism by John the Baptist, and
he witnessed Jesus’ ascension to heaven (Acts 1:21-22):  
21 “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us
all the time that athe Lord Jesus went in and out 1among us—
 22 abeginning 1with the baptism of John until the day that He bwas
taken up from us—one of these must become a cwitness with us of His
resurrection.”

- Chosen by draw lots/ will of fortunes/casting lots

Luke tells us that Matthias was chosen by “casting lots”:
“Then they cast
lots, and the lot fell to
Matthias; so he was added
to the eleven apostles.” —
Acts 1:26
- Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos was a fourteenth century
historian who built on the work of his predecessors and had access to
important texts that no longer exist. He claimed Matthias preached in
Judea, then Aethiopia (modern-day Georgia).
- A surviving copy of Acts of Andrew and Matthias claims he went to an
unnamed land of cannibals:
“About that time all the apostles had come together to
the same place, and shared among themselves the
countries, casting lots, in order that each might go
away into the part that had fallen to him. By lot, then,
it fell to Matthias to set out to the country of the man-
eaters.”
- Similar to Matthias’ ministry, the nature of his death varies.
Some traditions claim he was stoned at the end of his
ministry to cannibals in Aethiopia (Georgia). Another that
he was stoned by Jews in Jerusalem and then beheaded.
Hippolytus of Rome records that he died in Jerusalem of old
age.