The name Zebedee, the father of St. James and St. John, is translated as “gift of God.”  Saint James the Greater was a witness to Jesus’ Transfiguration. Jesus had His three closest apostles — Peter, James, and John — with him on a mountaintop when his body became luminous. He was joined by Moses and Elijah, who appeared with Him in glory.  Read More According to Sacred Scripture, Saint James witnessed the cure of Peter's mother-in-law and the raising of Jarius’s daughter from the dead, among other miracles. Many stories and legends attribute to James great miracles, as well, including raising the dead―a miracle not unknown in the lives of the saints, as Jesus himself promised (John 14:12).