James Intercisus

James Intercisus, also called James the Mutilated or James the Persian (Syriac: Yakob M'phasko Sahada; Latin: Jacobus Intercisus), (died in 420 AD) was a Syriac Christian saint born in Beth Huzaye (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܗܘܙܝܐ) in Persia. His epithet, Intercisus, is derived from the Latin word for "cut into pieces," which refers to the manner of his martyrdom: he was slowly cut into twenty-eight pieces. His death, along with the persecution of other Christians in the Sasanid Empire, started the Roman-Sassanid War (421-422).

Saint

James the Mutilated
The martyrdom of James, from the Menologion of Basil II.
Martyr
BornBeth Huzaye (Persia)
Died27 November 420[1]
Beth Lapat (Persia)
Venerated inEast Syriac Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Church
Catholic Church
Oriental Orthodoxy
Major shrineBraga
Feast27 November
27 Hathor (Coptic Christianity)[2]

His feast day is November 27.

Life

Tradition states that he was a military officer and courtier to Yazdegerd I who had apostatized after this ruler began to persecute Christians. Under the influence of his Christian family, however, he expressed his faith to Yazdegerd's successor, Bahram V, leading to his execution.[3]

Death

He was killed in Beth Lapat (Gundishapur). The ruins of this city are near Dezful, Iran.

At his execution, he survived the loss of limbs until he was beheaded. His followers requested his body parts as relics, but this request was denied, so they stole the body parts,[4] which were somehow sent to the Portuguese cathedral of Braga and put into a sarcophagus in the Relics Chapel.

Legend

James' story is recounted in The Golden Legend.

According to Katherine Rabenstein, he may be a composite character of James of Beit (who, having renounced Christianity under Yazdegerd, was shamed by his parents and changed his mind, becoming a martyr under the persecution of Bahram); Mar Peros (similarly shamed by his parents and martyred in 448); and James of Karka (a 20-year-old notary to Bahram, tortured alongside many others after casually remarking that he'd rather be cut into pieces than renounce God).[4]

Relics, churches and monasteries

Guillermus Ludovicus, bishop of Salpi, gifted to the abbey of St Paul in Cormery, the place where he had been a monk, several relics, including the head of James, on July 19th 1103.[5]

A piece of bone from the finger of James the Mutilated (Yakob M'phasko Sahada) is kept in a golden casket in the holy cross (kurishupalli) dedicated to the saint in the Orthodox Syrian Old Church of St Peter & Paul in Pengamuck, Kerala, India. It was dedicated by Gregorios Geevargese (Parumala Thirumeni) and metropolitan Dionysious Joseph (Pulikkottil II), a native of Pengamuck, who had received the bone at his consecration as metropolitan by the patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Yakoob II.

Several churches and monasteries are dedicated to Saint James:

References
  1. Shephard, Jonathan (2005). Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie: Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur Volumen 7 de Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 302. ISBN 9783447051705. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. "Hator 27 : Lives of Saints : Synaxarium - CopticChurch.net".
  3. John J. Delaney, Dictionary of saints, (Image, 2005), 323.
  4. Rabenstein, Katherine I. (1998). "saintpatrickdc.org". St. Patrick Catholic Church. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  5. Shephard, Jonathan (2005). Zwischen Polis, Provinz und Peripherie: Beiträge zur byzantinischen Geschichte und Kultur Volumen 7 de Mainzer Veröffentlichungen zur Byzantinistik. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 306–311. ISBN 9783447051705. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  6. Adrian J. Boas, Jerusalem in the time of the Crusades, (Routledge, 2001), 128.

Bibliography
  • Thieleman J. van Braght, Martyr's Mirror, 1660
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