St. James the Greater Craft {Liturgical Ornament}

St. James the Greater, who was one of the sons of Zebedee, is celebrated in high honor on July 25th (in the new and old calendars). He is, of course, one of Jesus’ apostles and is attributed to being Jesus’ first apostle. He is the brother to John (the ”disciple whom Jesus loved”) and is know as ”the greater” – not because he was smarter or better but because he was larger then the other James (James the lesser). He had a full life and brought many souls to Jesus. Read more about him here and here.

For his ornament, we used the  ”Cross of St. James” image. This symbol is a mix between a cross and a sword. The cross is for Jesus, and a sword represents the instrument used to behead James at his martyrdom.

To create this, I first drew the ”St. James Cross” on red sheet of felt. Then I cut it out and flipped it over. Elizabeth glued it onto a off-white oval with the drawn side down – because it was kind-of messy looking. Using a brown permanent marker, we lightly outlined the plan side of the cross to add a little bit of interest. Then, we added a threaded loop of silver thread.

Because July 25 is the feast day for two well known saints, Elizabeth and I created two ornaments for the day.

St. James, pray for us.

~JenMarie