Musings on James

[Bernard Milford]

Many thanks to those who replied to my questions about the name James
in Spanish.  It seems that the modern use is Jamie, although Jacobo is
also used - reminding us English speakers of the equivalence between
the two names, James and Jacob.  Iago is not used much outside
Shakespeare!  However the answer raises another question.  Why are not
these names more common in Spain and Latin cultures? James is, after
all, Spain's patron saint.  Compared with the number of (for example)
Irish Patrick's  (or Patricias), there's not a lot of Jamie's.

Is the reason the way in which San Jacobo became Santiago?  I wonder if
the elision perhaps removed the actual name from view, in perhaps the
same way as the name St Nicholas was lost to view in (I hate to mention
it) Santa Claus. Santiago is used a lot - I have read bible passages in
Spanish that mention "Pedro, Santiago and Juan" - giving James a
saintly honorific while leaving it out for Peter and John. So the
abbreviation of the abbreviation (Diego) is the name that is most often
used now.

By the way, while we're on the subject of James in the Bible, does
anyone else wonder, with me, whether the author of "Dum Pater" had his
tongue just a little bit in his cheek when he wrote the first line of
the chorus "Primus ex apostoles..."?  This  reminds me of
the incident, in Matthew 20, when James's mother, with classic
misunderstanding of what Jesus was about, asks if her sons could sit on
Jesus' right and left hand in the kingdom.  Jesus doesn't let her down
too gently, predicting their death by martyrdom and letting her know
that the job of "First among the Apostles" wasn't up for grabs.  But I
guess the line is meant to be read with the next one, "matri
Jerusalemis"; James was certainly the first of the apostles to be
martyred.

James' mother also watched the crucifiction.

Happy Easter

Bernard

bernard.milfordatelstra.com


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