Deepertruth: The Feast of St. Phillip and St. James the Younger (Lesser).

St. James the Less is noted as "Less" to distinguish him from James, the brother of St. John and the son of Zebedee who is called James the "Greater".  The reason being that James the Less was a younger man and age has it's rank and privilege.

The better translation would be James the younger.  

Today's story is about James the Less who was the son of Cleopus (John 19:25) also known as Alohaeus,  and Mary, a close relative of the Virgin Mary.  James was a cousin of Jesus who was often times referred to as a brother of the Lord.  Close relatives were regarded as brothers in those times and in that culture (Matthew 13:55, Mark 4:6, Galatians 1:19).

St. Philip was one of the original twelve Apostles who grew up in Bethsaida on the Lake Genesareth (John 1:44).  He was raised around the fishing industry and he was very close to the brothers Simon and Andrew  the sons of Bar-Jona (House of Bar-Jona) and James and John who were the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 4:21).  St. Philip as a boy learned the trade of a fisherman who spent most his early life fishing on the boats constructed for heavy catches.  He was strong in his Jewish up-bringing as was common to the environment. 

 It is from tradition that St. Philip was an early follower of St. John the Baptist and was present when Jesus came walking by.  St. John the Baptist recognized his cousin saying, "Behold, the Lamb of God"! This had a great impact on St. Philip.