St James and St Teresa

Is there any particular connection between the Apostle St James - whose feast day is today - and St Teresa of Avila? Yes there is. St James is the traditional patron of Spain, as all pilgrims to Compostela know. (St James is Santiago in Spanish). Some accounts say that the Apostle actually preached in Spain, but there is general agreement in the traditions that he died in Palestine and that his relics were brought to Spain. Other stories also associate St James with Spain, notably the one that tells of an apparition of Our Lady to him in what is now Zaragoza in AD 40. The church she instructed him to build there ('Our Lady of the Pillar') was said to have been the first church ever built in her honour. Such was the Spanish people's love for Teresa that they wanted to make her co-patroness of Spain alongside St James even before she had been canonised in 1622. At that time there was a national debate about this - not so much about St Teresa's merits but about the appropriateness of elevating her to equivalence with one who was an actual apostle. The Pope initially gave the idea of her co-patronage his blessing but the divisiveness of the project persuaded him to withdraw it. All this is just another indication of the massive impact and influence of the life and writings of our foundress.