The Synoptic Gospels state that James and John were preparing to fish with their father by the seashore when Jesus called them to follow him.

The feast day of St. James is celebrated on 25 July on the liturgical calendars of the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and certain other Protestant churches.

The Chapel of Saint James the Great, located to the left of the sanctuary, is the traditional place where he was martyred when King Agrippa ordered him to be beheaded (Acts 12:1–2).

[19] The 12th century Historia Compostelana commissioned by Diego Gelmírez provides a summary of the legend of St. James, as it was believed at Compostela at that time.

[20] According to ancient local tradition, on 2 January AD 40, the Virgin Mary appeared to James on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the Gospel in Hispania.

[20] Tradition has it that when the disciples of James, Theodore and Athanasius, arrived in Iria Flavia, they approached Queen Lupa about giving them a place to bury his body.

[23] Lupa appears in the Codex Calixtinus which further relates that she decides to trick the disciples and sends them to the governor of Duio with the intent of having them killed.

Once again Lupa tries to deceive them and sends them to Pico Sacro (the Sacred Peak) to collect two of her oxen to carry the necessary material to build the tomb.

[26] The tradition at Compostela placed the discovery of the relics of the saint in the 9th century, by Pelayo in the Libredon forest in the time of Bishop Theodemir and king Alfonso II.

[28] An even later tradition states that he miraculously appeared to fight for the Christian army during the legendary battle of Clavijo, and was henceforth called Santiago Matamoros (Saint James the Moor-slayer).

Miguel de Cervantes has Don Quixote explaining that "the great knight of the russet cross was given by God to Spain as patron and protector".

[30] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that in 1829 the Apostles James, Peter and John appeared as heavenly messengers to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and conferred upon them the Melchizedek priesthood authority of apostolic succession, and thus exclusively on earth to their organization.

Muslim exegesis, however, more or less agrees with the New Testament list and says that the disciples included Peter, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Andrew, James, Jude, John and Simon the Zealot.