James, the son of Zebedee — James the Greater, as tradition calls him — was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ and a significant figure of the New Testament. He was the brother of John, likewise an apostle, and with John and Peter he belonged to the innermost circle of Jesus's disciples.
Born in Galilee to Zebedee and Salome, James was a fisherman by trade, as was his brother. Jesus called the two of them as they worked on their boat: "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).
James witnessed many of the decisive moments of Jesus's life, among them the Transfiguration and the Garden of Gethsemane — occasions entrusted only to the inner three, Peter, James, and John.
After the Resurrection he went on preaching and spreading the new faith; tradition holds that he worked in Judea and perhaps in other regions as well.
According to the Acts of the Apostles (12:1–2), James was the first of the apostles to die a martyr's death, executed on the orders of King Herod Agrippa I — which made him one of Christianity's earliest martyrs.
He is venerated as a saint in the Christian tradition: the Orthodox Church keeps his feast on 30 April (New Style), the Catholic Church on 3 May.