May 3 is the joint feast of the apostles St. Philip and St. James the Less. Philip, from Bethsaida, was called first by Christ (John 1:43-44) and brought Nathanael to him; James, called "the Less" to distinguish him from the son of Zebedee, was a kinsman of the Lord and the first bishop of Jerusalem, where he presided over the council recorded in Acts 15. Both are apostles of the first rank, though the Gospels give them fewer words than Peter or John.
The relics of the two apostles are venerated together at Rome, in the Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles, where their bodies were translated in the 6th century. The present church, rebuilt after the 1348 earthquake, holds their relics under the high altar. The joint feast, fixed on May 3 in the Roman calendar since the 6th century, was kept on that date until the 1955 reform of Pius XII moved it to May 11; the 1969 reform returned it to May 3.
James the Less is the author of the New Testament epistle that bears his name — "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) — and is venerated at Jerusalem, where tradition says he was thrown from the Temple pinnacle and stoned to death in 62 AD. The chapel of his martyrdom is shown in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. From Rome, where the two apostles rest together, to Jerusalem, where James led the first Church, the May 3 feast binds the two apostolic cities.
