St. James the Less

For people and places called Saint James, see the diambiguation page.

James (יעקב "Holder of the heel; supplanter"; Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ), son of Alpheaus (or Clopas), was called the Less or the Younger to distinguish him from Saint James the Great and Saint James the Just. He was a brother of the apostle Matthew and the son of Mary (not to be confused with Mary, the mother of Jesus).

He appears in the list of the Twelve Apostles, as does James the Great: Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13. He is also mentioned when his mother appears in Mark 15:40 (where he is labled "less", "little or "younger" depending on the translation) and Matthew 27:56; her marriage to Clopas is probably mentioned in John 19:25.

Not much is known about his later ministry. Eusebius of Caesarea reported a tradition identifing him with James the Just, the head of the early Christian Church in Jerusalem, but modern biblical scholars usually distinguish them.