Something Different Concerning Saint James

[scruffy1]

We all know that the saints are often represented by animals, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, John the eagle, Roche and his dog, Anthony and his pig. The saints also are associated with gemstones, Peter with jasper, Andrew with sapphires, and John with emeralds. Which stone represents Saint James? A hint. Saint James was known for his stormy temperament, his red hair, and his fiery temper. All pointing towards an exuberant personality, a fair skinned individual, and in this Middle Eastern climate where I live, probably he had freckles upon freckles. His gemstone is chalcedony, described classically as…wait for it…freckled red-yellow-orange! Reality meets tradition.

 

[TMcA]

Scruffy, how did the linkage between these saints and gemstones develop?

Sorry, your post made me curious.

Tom (no gemstone association)

 

[Paladina]

We all know that the saints are often represented by animals, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, John the eagle, Roche and his dog, Anthony and his pig. The saints also are associated with gemstones, Peter with jasper, Andrew with sapphires, and John with emeralds. Which stone represents Saint James? A hint. Saint James was known for his stormy temperament, his red hair, and his fiery temper. All pointing towards an exuberant personality, a fair skinned individual, and in this Middle Eastern climate where I live, probably he had freckles upon freckles. His gemstone is chalcedony, described classically as…wait for it…freckled red-yellow-orange! Reality meets tradition.

I didn’t know James was a typical redhead. In Renaissance art it’s normally Judas who is depicted with red hair.

 

[scruffy1]

I didn’t know James was a typical redhead. In Renaissance art it’s normally Judas who is depicted with red hair.

I recall reading somewhere concerning the hair color Saint James but cannot remember now – perhaps “The Golden Legend” but I loaned my copy which was never returned.. James was well known for his fiery temper for which he and his brother earned the nickname Boanerges or "Sons of Thunder" – Mark 3:17. James and his brother John wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan town, but were rebuked by Jesus Luke 9:50 something.Here we see Saint James depicted as Matamoros with a decidedly carrot top!

 

[Deleted member 77020]

I don't think this is a true depiction of St. James.

 

[scruffy1]

Scruffy, how did the linkage between these saints and gemstones develop?

Sorry, your post made me curious.

Tom (no gemstone association)

I can only surmise as to the origins, perhaps the breastplate –choshen -worn by the High Priest in our temple may have been an inspiration. Two interesting comments, the breastplate was held in place by golden straps and had 12 precious stones representing also the 12 tribes. Neither the gold nor the stones mentioned were found or mined in Biblical Israel. Likewise, the incense burned in the temple consisted of 11 “sweet spices” and herbs none of which were then growing in Biblical Israel. Since the Hebrew Bible may also be interpreted as mans ever expanding perception of the deity from a local personal god to one guarding a particular tribe or family then is revealed as one who has power even until Egypt, one who not only resides in the Jerusalem Temple Holy of Holies but rather is all encompassing figure in and beyond this world so the objects relating to his worship then came from all places in the known world.

 

[Kathor1]

The internet is a wondrous thing, it lets you dig deep down through all the stuff floating around. So apparently this attribution of gemstones to apostles goes back to the Book of Revelation 21 and the first to make a connection between the gemstones mentioned there and the apostles also mentioned there, although the latter not in a particular order, was Andrew or Andreas of Caeserea. Now there's a PhD thesis, written in 2008 by Eugénia Constantinou, and you can download it here . It has the actual text of what Andreas wrote in his commentary on the Book of Revelation in the year 600 or thereabouts and it says this:

Rev. 21:20a the fifth [stone is] onyx​

[245] By this (stone) having the appearance of a shining human fingernail, is probably meant James, the first who accepted bodily death for Christ before the others, which the onyx characterizes (like a nail), being deprived of sensation when it is cut off.​

So this very first author attributes the onyx to Saint James the Greater and not chalcedony and he has quite a different explanation.

Apparently later, others used various different lists of apostles' names and then attributed the gemstones listed in the Book of Revelation according to the chosen sequence of apostles' names. I did not pursue this any further because I have the impression that this did not play a major role in (Western) Christian theology and Christian art of the Middle Ages. The connection between precious stones and apostles seems to be popular with collectors of gemstones and people who are into zodiac interpretations and the like.

I can't find anything whatsoever on who and when someone attributed red hair to the Apostle James. As @Paladina said already, red hair got attributed to Judas Iscariot; this was apparently particularly popular in Spanish art and spread from there to other parts of Europe.

 

[Kathor1]

Here is what Andreas of Caeserea writes about chalcedony. There's a problem here, because this precious stone is mentioned in the Book of Revelation (New Testament) but not in Exodus (Old Testament) where the precious stones in the high priest's breastplate are described. As commonly known, early and later Christian theologists always tried to find parallels between the Old and New Testament in an attempt to prove that the Old Testament contained hints and prophecies of the coming of Jesus - therefore the comparison between the gemstones on the ancient breastplate and the gemstones in Revelation:

Rev. 21:19d the third [stone is] chalcedony ​

This one is not carried on the priestly breastplate, but anthracite, which is not found here. One must consider, whether it does not symbolize the saint called "coal" in this way. The blessed Andrew the apostle is "coal" since he was inflamed with the Spirit.​

So he makes a connection between anthracite, mentioned in the OT, and chalcedony, mentioned in the NT, and attributes this gemstone to the Apostle Andrew, not James. Apparently, the ancients believed that anthracite was similar to coal.

There is some more about this in a 1913 book that can be found online: The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination, crystal gazing, birthstones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetary by George Frederick Kunz, Pn.D., D.Sc. I love this title.

 

[scruffy1]

I don't think this is a true depiction of St. James.

I don't think this is a true depiction of St. James.

The figure depicted is certainly Matamoros, the halo the sword, the white horse, trampled upon enemy etc. Wiki-guru claims that the figure is wearing a mantle of the Military Order of Saint James which I cannot percieve, a-n-d his flagall do suggest this is Saint James and the artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo born at the end of the Renaissance was influenced by that period was painting Saint James probably during his period in Wurzburg.

 

[Kathor1]

this is Saint James and the artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

I think what's interesting about this painting is neither the banner nor the colour of Saint James' hair chosen by the painter but the fact that Tiepolo painted it around 1750 for the Spanish embassy in London. It's not a religious painting but an eminently political painting.

 

[Kathor1]

I just love this forum ... the unexpected avenues it leads you into . So here's what I just read online about the painting in Saint James the Greater in History, Art and Culture, by W. Farina, published in 2018:

Tiepolo's startling St. James the Greater Conquering the Moors (1749-1750) was reportedly commissioned by the Spanish ambassador to England, perhaps designed as a reminder to the English that it was the Spanish who originally paved the way for them in the New World. England would have then been in the process of preparing to wage war against the French in the theaters of North America and Europe. To describe Tiepolo's version of St James as over-the-top would not be inappropriate. Here we see a haloed, decidedly light-skinned, unarmored, white-cloaked saint, fighting in the traditional à la jinete style etc etc.

The author also points out that all the Moors are portrayed as dark-skinned sub-Saharan Africans - historically inaccurate since the Islamic conquerors of Spain largely consisted of Berber Caucasians.

I wouldn't attribute much importance to the hair colour under these circumstances.

 

[Paladina]

@Kathar1na Thanks for the (gold) mine of information!

 

[Kathor1]

When the iconography of Saint James Matamoros enters the fray, the discussion can veer off to Political Correctness or Muslims vs Christians or something along those lines. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the topic as I'm an avid online follower of the French scholar Péricard-Méa who wrote about it. But the recent BBC series about pilgrimage on the road to Santiago and comments made by one of the participants, Heather Small, about the effects that European Christian iconography had on her, have stayed in my mind.

I've just clicked through a few dozen paintings of Santiago Matamoros - a more Spanish than European concept, the image is rarely found in France for example. I paid more attention to the victims than Saint James' hair. The victims usually look exotic due to their headcovers, beards, and clothing and I'd associate them with people from the regions around the Mediterranean, sometimes with Ottomans (Turks) in particular. They are meant to be Arabs and Berbers. When did that change?

Tiepolo's painting with its contrast between the white dominant fighter figure and the black African victims is disconcerting. He created the painting on commission in the mid-18th century. W. Farina insinuates that the scene could also be easily interpreted as a disturbing allusion to the ongoing slave trade with America, one in which by then the English had taken the decisive lead. During the mid-18th century, importation of African slaves to the British colonies of the American South was burgeoning [...]. Taken in context, the painting comes across [as] a subtle warning and reminder to the English diplomats who would be soon viewing it in London. I'm not sure about this interpretation but it's certainly food for thought. I'm always interested in looking at things through the eyes of the people who lived at the time and see what they saw, not just what we see today.

 

[Lurch]

Finally...a question my 50+ year ago Geology degree can answer. I have seen multiple instances of reg agate and jasper, but the only chalcedony I have seen is-a not-quite translucent very light lavender stone. Maybe they grow it different in the Holy Land. Anthracite is used for the gemstone Jet. Very hard coal, e trembly difficult to light but equally hard to douse. All those coal seam fires in Appalachia were anthracite and many ar still burning 50 years later.

Sant Iago’s hair color I can’t comment on. I may be old, but not that old!

 

[Prentiss Riddle]

Finally...a question my 50+ year ago Geology degree can answer. I have seen multiple instances of reg agate and jasper, but the only chalcedony I have seen is-a not-quite translucent very light lavender stone. Maybe they grow it different in the Holy Land.

Yes, when I do a Google image search for chalcedony I see a lot of pale blues and greens, certainly nothing fiery.

 

[Prentiss Riddle]

When the iconography of Saint James Matamoros enters the fray, the discussion can veer off to Political Correctness or Muslims vs Christians or something along those lines. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the topic as I'm an avid online follower of the French scholar Péricard-Méa who wrote about it. But the recent BBC series about pilgrimage on the road to Santiago and comments made by one of the participants, Heather Small, about the effects that European Christian iconography had on her, have stayed in my mind.

This may not be the thread for it, but would you care to post something somewhere about Péricard-Méa? She sounds interesting but my nonexistent French can’t tell much more than that.

As for Matamoros, don’t get me started.

 

[Kathor1]

This may not be the thread for it, but would you care to post something somewhere about Péricard-Méa? She sounds interesting but my nonexistent French can’t tell much more than that.

I think here is as good as anywhere else. I find her an amazing person. She is now in her 80s. She runs - or did so until recently - a foundation that does scholarly research into the medieval cult of Saint James, mainly in France. They maintain a number of websites, predominantly in French, and publish a scientific/scholarly revue. Enter Pericard into the Search field of the forum (top left on the screen) and you will find a number of messages, including some criticism .

She went on her first pilgrimage to Santiago in 1982, starting in Bourges in France, on horseback together with her two adolescent children. At the time, there were only about 200 pilgrims per year who travelled along the old roads to Santiago. She was involved with the French group that did a lot of pioneer research and other work on the Ways of Saint James and then she decided to take up university studies as an adult and wrote a thesis on the topic. There's a short Wikipedia entry in French (perhaps try Google Translate on it) and here is the link to one of their websites with links to their other sites.

 

[Kathor1]

Throughout the centuries, apparently, there have also been attempts to match the 12 apostles to the 12 signs of the zodiac. The method is formalistic, as it is with the gems. You take the list of the zodiac signs which starts with Aries (vernal equinox) and one of the lists of the apostles from one of the three evangelists in question. On these three lists, James is always in third place, so he is matched up with Gemini. Don't conclude from this, however, that he's a twin or was born in May or June. Since I'm not really into this, I don't know what kind of conclusions one could draw as to his character traits.