Overview

The Liturgy of Saint James is attributed to Saint James the Just (Died ca. AD 62), the son of Alphaeus who was the First Bishop of Jerusalem. Saint James was martyred at the hands of a mob incensed at his preaching about Jesus and his "transgression of the Law" - an accusation made by the Jewish High Priest of the time, Ananus .

The Liturgy of Saint James is considered to be the first Liturgy developed for general use in the Church, and its date of composition is very early and is widely accepted to ca. AD 60, close to the time of composition of Saint Paul's letter to the Romans.

In the 4th Century, Saint Basil considerably shortened the Liturgy due to its extreme length, chiefly as a result of a long list of prayers for the Saints. The celebrated Church Father, Saint John Chrysostom, further revised the liturgy a few years later. It is in this form that the Liturgy survives today.

Most Western Christians, to their surprise, would know a small portion of the Liturgy through the famous hymn, Let all Mortal Flesh keep Silence. The tune to which it is sung in English today, however, is certainly not part of the original composition and is a French carol melody, Picardy, which first appeared in The English Hymnal in 1906.

Except on the feast day of Saint James (October 23) and the first Sunday after Christmas, and then almost exclusively celebrated in Jerusalem, the Liturgy of Saint James is not regularly celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In its Syrian form, the Liturgy is still used in the Syrian Oriental Church, both in a Syriac translation and in Malayalam and English by the Syrian Orthodox Church of India.

The Liturgy

The Liturgy of Saint James is very long indeed, taking some hours to complete in full. A reproduction of the text for the Liturgy can be found at The Divine Liturgy of Saint James (Transcription).