Today, July 25, San Giacomo il Maggiore is celebrated, depicted in the cave of the Hermitage of San Michele alle Grottelle.

James, brother of the apostle John, is called “Major” to distinguish him from the apostle of the same name, James of Alphaeus. His life changes radically when he accepts Jesus’ invitation to become a “fisher of men”. Going further – we read in the Gospel according to Matthew – Jesus “saw two other brothers, James of Zebedee and John his brother, who in the boat together with Zebedee, their father, were mending the nets. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him”.

According to tradition, in 831, after a prodigious luminous phenomenon near Mount Liberon, a tomb was discovered with the inscription: “Here lies Jacobus, son of Zebedee and Salome”. The place is called campus stellae (“field of the star”), the name from which the city of Santiago de Compostela will later derive. In 1075 the construction of the basilica dedicated to him began and since the Middle Ages, the Sanctuary has been a destination for pilgrimages, first from all over Europe and then from all over the world. The Camino de Santiago, in fact, is one of the most important routes in history and Christianity.

Inside the Sanctuary of San Michele alle Grottelle, the aedicule of San Giacomo di Compostela (14th century) is located inside the second cave in a natural apse of the church. The newsstand consists of an altar surmounted by an arch. On both sides there are depicted the holy martyrs Lorenzo and Stefano, while in the centre, in a trefoil frame, there is San Giacomo with a scene depicting some of his miracles.

On the right, the three scenes depict the miracle of the hanged man and concern the story of a young pilgrim unjustly accused of theft and sentenced to death; the Apostle, invoked by his parents (depicted in the typical pilgrim clothes in the second scene), saved him when he was already on the gallows by supporting his legs (first scene), so that the parents went to the city praetor reporting the miracle to him, to have him freed; the latter did not believe what was said and said that his son was as alive as the rooster and hen spread on his table, but having uttered these words, the two birds jumped out of the plate among the amazed present (third scene).

The panels on the right represent two other miracles linked to each other: a dead pilgrim is resurrected thanks to the intercession of St. James who, invoked by his faithful traveling companion, takes them on horseback to Santiago (first scene); after returning to his homeland, the faithful friend falls ill with leprosy and to cure him the companion does not hesitate to wash him in the blood of his children, as a voice has suggested to him (third scene); however, the little ones are saved by the Apostle, who offers them a golden apple as protection before the sacrifice (second scene).

The frescoes in the two caves are an important document that bears witness to the diffusion of the Micaelic and Iacopeic cults in medieval Italy along the main routes of pilgrimages.