Novena To Saint James The Great (Son of Zebedee)

Repeat the following Novena prayers every day for 9 consecutive days.

O Glorious Saint James,
because of your fervor and generosity
Jesus chose you to witness his glory on the Mount
and his agony in the Garden.
Obtain for us strength and consolation
in the unending struggles of this life.
Help us to follow Christ constantly and generously,
to be victors over all our difficulties,
and to receive the crown of glory in heaven.

Amen.
 

Patron of Spain,
forget not the grand nation which owes to you
both its heavenly nobility and its earthly prosperity;
preserve it from ever diminishing those truths which made it,
in its bright days, the salt of the earth;
keep it in mind of the terrible warning
that if the salt lose its savour,
it is good for nothing any more
but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men (Saint Matth. v. 13).
At the same time remember, O Apostle,
the special cultus wherewith the whole Church honours you.
Does she not to this very day keep under the immediate protection
of the Roman Pontiff both thy sacred body,
so happily rediscovered in our times
(Litterae Leonis XIII., diei 1 Novemb. 1884, ad Archiep. Compostell.),
and the vow of going on pilgrimage to venerate those precious relics?

Where now are the days when your wonderful energy of expansion abroad
was surpassed by thy power of drawing all to yourself?
Who but he that numbers the stars of the firmament could count the Saints,
the penitents, the kings, the warriors, the unknown of every grade,
the ever-renewed multitude,
ceaselessly moving to and from that field of stars,
whence you did shed your light upon the world?
Our ancient legends tell us of a mysterious vision
granted to the founder of Christian Europe.
One evening after a day of toil, Charlemagne,
standing on the shore of the Frisian Sea,
beheld a long belt of stars,
which seemed to divide the sky between Gaul, Germany, and Italy,
and crossing over, Gascony, the Basque territory, and Navarre,
stretched away to the far-off Province of Galicia.
Then you did appear to him and say:
"This starry path " marks out the road for you to go and deliver my "tomb;
and all nations shall follow after you (Pseudo-Turpin. De vita Car. Magn.)."
And Charles, crossing the mountains,
gave the signal to all Christendom to undertake those great Crusades,
which were both the salvation and the glory of the Latin races,
by driving back the Mussulman plague to the land of its birth.

When we consider that two tombs formed, as it were,
the two extreme points or poles of this movement
unparalleled in the history of nations:
the one wherein the God-Man rested in death,
the other where thy body lay, O son of Zebedee,
we cannot help crying out with the Psalmist:
Your friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable (Ps. csssviii. 17)!
And what a mark of friendship did the Son of Man bestow on his humble apostle
by sharing His honours with him,
when the military Orders and Hospitallers were established,
to the terror of the Crescent,
for the sole purpose, at the outset,
of entertaining and protecting pilgrims on their way
to one or other of these holy tombs?
May the heavenly impulse now so happily showing itself
in the return to the great Catholic pilgrimages,
gather once more at Compostella the sons of thy former clients.
We, at least, will imitate Saint Louis before the walls of Tunis,
murmuring with his dying lips the Collect of thy feast;
and we will repeat in conclusion:
"Be You, O Lord, the sanctifier and guardian of Your people;
that, defended by the protection of your Apostle James,
they may please You by their conduct,
and serve You with secure minds."

[Mention your intention here...]

Our Father...

Hail Mary...

Glory Be...

Saint James the Great,
Pray for us.

Saint James the Great,
Pray for us.

Saint James the Great,
Pray for us.