It has been suggested that Charnel house be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since August 2011.

Ossuary in Hallstatt, Austria

Ossuary at the Gallipoli World War I battlefield, containing the remains of 3000 unidentified French soldiers.

An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary. The greatly reduced space taken up by an ossuary means that it is possible to store the remains of many more people in a single tomb than if the original coffins were left as is.

Persian[link]

In Persia, the Zoroastrians used a deep well for this function from the earliest times (circa 3,000 years ago) and called it astudan (literally, "the place for the bones"). There are many rituals and regulations in the Zoroastrian faith concerning the astudans. Among the pre-7th-century Sogdians ^[1] in the region of central Asia, the name for an ossuary was tanbar.

Roman Catholic[link]

A chandelier of Sedlec Ossuary, Czech Republic, made of skulls and bones.

Many examples of ossuaries are found within Europe such as the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome, Italy, the San Bernardino alle Ossa in Milan, Italy, the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic, the Skull Chapel in Czermna in Lower Silesia, Poland, and Capela dos Ossos (Chapel of bones) in the city of Évora, in Portugal. The village of Wamba in the province of Valladolid, Spain has an impressive ossuary of over a thousand skulls inside the local church, dating from between the 12th and the 18th centuries. A more recent example is the Douaumont ossuary in France that contains the remains of more than 130,000 French and German soldiers that fell at the Battle of Verdun during World War I.

The catacombs beneath the Monastery of San Francisco in Lima, Peru also contain an ossuary.

Eastern Orthodox[link]

Contemporary Greek ossuaries made of wood and metal.

The use of ossuaries is a longstanding tradition in the Orthodox Church. The remains of an Orthodox Christian are treated with special reverence, in conformity with the biblical teaching that the body of a believer is a "temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:19, etc.), having been sanctified and transfigured by Baptism, Holy Communion and the participation in the mystical life of the Church.^[2] In Orthodox monasteries, when one of the brethren dies, his remains are buried (for details, see Christian burial) for one to three years, and then disinterred, cleaned and gathered into the monastery's charnel house. If there is reason to believe that the departed is a saint, the remains may be placed in a reliquary; otherwise the bones are usually mingled together (skulls together in one place, long bones in another, etc.). The remains of an abbot may be placed in a separate ossuary made out of wood or metal.

The use of ossuaries is also found among the laity in the Greek Orthodox Church. The departed will be buried for one to three years and then, often on the anniversary of death, the family will gather with the parish priest and celebrate a parastas (memorial service), after which the remains are disinterred, washed with wine, perfumed, and placed in a small ossuary of wood or metal, inscribed with the name of the departed, and placed in a room, often in or near the church, which is dedicated to this purpose.

Jewish[link]

The James Ossuary was on display at the Royal Ontario Museum from November 15, 2002 to January 5, 2003.

During the time of the Second Temple, Jewish burial customs included primary burials in burial caves, followed by secondary burials in ossuaries placed in smaller niches of the burial caves. Some of the limestone ossuaries that have been discovered, particularly around the Jerusalem area, include intricate geometrical patterns and inscriptions identifying the deceased. Among the best-known Jewish ossuaries of this period are: an ossuary inscribed 'Simon the Temple builder' in the collection of the Israel Museum, another incribed 'Elisheba wife of Tarfon', one inscribed 'Yehohanan ben Hagkol' that contained an iron nail in a heel bone suggesting crucifixion, another inscribed 'James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus', the authenticity of which is suspect, and ten ossuaries recovered from the Talpiot Tomb in 1980, several of which are reported to have names from the New Testament.

During the Second Temple period, Jewish sages debated whether the occasion of the gathering of a parent's bones for a secondary burial was a day of sorrow or rejoicing; it was resolved that it was a day of fasting in the morning and feasting in the afternoon. The custom of secondary burial in ossuaries did not persist among Jews past the Second Temple period nor appear to exist among Jews outside the land of Israel.

See also[link]

• Catacomb
• Charnel house
• Crypt
• Grave
• Mausoleum
• Reliquary
• Tomb
• James Ossuary
• Columbarium

External links[link]

• The Role of Shrines and Temples in the Urban Sogdian Community: An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective from Contemporary Bukhara

References[link]

Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer with Crystal Globe in the 2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Born	(1934-09-04) September 4, 1934 (age 77) Prague, Czechoslovakia
Occupation	Film director
Spouse	Eva Švankmajerová

Jan Švankmajer (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈʃvaŋkmajɛr]; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and many others.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Jan Švankmajer was born in Prague. An early influence on his later artistic development was a puppet theatre he was given for Christmas as a child. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. He contributed to Emil Radok's film Doktor Faust in 1958 and then began working for Prague's Semafor Theatre where he founded the Theatre of Masks. He then moved on to the Laterna Magika multimedia theatre, where he renewed his association with Radok. This theatrical experience is reflected in Švankmajer's first film The Last Trick, which was released in 1964. Under the influence of theoretician Vratislav Effenberger Švankmajer moved from the mannerism of his early work to classic surrealism, first manifested in his film The Garden (1968), and joined the Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group.^[2]

He was married to Eva Švankmajerová, an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist, and writer until her death in October 2005. Švankmajerová collaborated on several of her husband's movies, including Alice, Faust, and Otesánek. They had two children, Veronika (b. 1963) and Václav (b. 1975, an animator).

Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish, and yet somehow funny pictures. He continues to make films in Prague.

Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses fast-motion sequences when people walk or interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects being brought to life through stop-motion. Many of his films also include clay objects in stop-motion, otherwise known as clay animation. Food is a favourite subject and medium.

Stop-motion features in most of his work, though recently his feature films have included much more live action sequences than animation.

Many of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were suppressed. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.

Thoroughfare in Knovíz, Kladno District, Czech Republic. The former cinema building on the right: Jan Švankmajer's studio

Today Švankmajer is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. Among his best known works are the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Little Otik (2000) and Lunacy (2005), a surreal comic horror based on two works of Edgar Allan Poe and the life of Marquis de Sade. The two stories by Poe, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" and "The Premature Burial", provide Lunacy its thematic focus, whereas the life of Marquis de Sade provides the film's blasphemy. Also famous (and much imitated) is the short Dimensions of Dialogue (1982), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.^[3] His films have been called "as emotionally haunting as Kafka's stories.^[4] His latest film is Surviving Life from 2010.

His next project is called Insects (Hmyz).^[5] It has a projected budget of 40 million CZK and a preliminary release set to 2015. The film will be based on the play Pictures from the Insects' Life by Karel Čapek, which Švankmajer describes as following: "This Čapek´s play is a very misanthropic, and I always liked it — bugs behave as a human beings, and people behave as insects. It also reminds one a lot of Franz Kafka and his famous Metamorphosis."^[6]

Filmography[link]

Feature-length films[link]

Short films[link]

Animation and gadgets[link]

See also[link]

• Jiří Trnka, Czech animator and puppeteer
• Karel Zeman, Czech animator and filmmaker
• Jiří Barta, Czech stop-motion animator
• Ladislaw Starewich, Polish animator and puppeteer
• List of stop motion films

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Peter Hames: Dark Alchemy: The Films of Jan Svankmajer, Praeger Paperback, 1995, ISBN 0-275-95299-1. Second updated edition published in 2007, ISBN 1-905674-45-7. Peter Hames is an expert on history of Central European cinema.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jan Švankmajer

• Jan Švankmajer at the Internet Movie Database
• The Animation of Jan Svankmajer at Keyframe - the Animation Resource
• Overview of his work
• (Polish) Jan Švankmajer - PL
• On Svankmajer's Faust
• The Works of Jan Svankmajer
• Downing the Folk-Festive: Menacing Meals in the Films of Jan Svankmajer
• Czech Animation, priv. blog
• An article and filmography on Svankmajer

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (June 2010)

Dionne Brand (born January 7, 1953 Guayaguayare, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was named Toronto's third Poet Laureate in September 2009.^[1][2][3]

Biography[link]

Dionne Brand graduated from Naparima Girls' High School in 1970, and immigrated to Canada, to attend the University of Toronto, where she earned a BA in 1975.^[4] Brand also holds a MA (1989) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - OISE. Currently Brand teaches at the University of Guelph.^[5]

Brand frequently explores themes of gender, race, sexuality and feminism in her writing. In "Bread Out of Stone", Brand uses personal experiences and strong metaphoric language to expose racism, white male domination, injustices and the moral hypocrisies of Canada with its own assessment as being "not like the United States" ^[6] As a show of support of women solidarity, Brand has participated in many anthologies and writing opposing the violent killings of Black men and women and specifically pointing out the massacre of fourteen women in Montreal and the racism and inequality experienced by Aboriginal women of Canada, particularly Helen Betty Osborne's death in the Pas.^[6]

Despite the similarity of their names, she should not be confused with poet Di Brandt.

Scholarly Engagement[link]

Many scholars have analyzed Dionne Brand's work. In his book Black Like Who?, Rinaldo Walcott includes two essays ("A Tough Geography": Towards a Poetics of Black Space(s) in Canada and "No Language is Neutral": The Politics of Performativity in M. Nourbese Philip's and Dionne Brand's Poetry) that deal with Dionne Brand's poetry and take up the overarching themes of her work.^[7] Brand herself had previously used a line from Derek Walcott to title her collection, No Language is Neutral (nominated for Governor General's award) in which she "uses language to disturb" in poetry that is filled with biographic meanings and ancestral references, including contemporary inequality issues and racism.^[8] As a Marxist and feminist, Brand believes that "by addressing real power can we begin to deal with racism", that is, engaging in both economic and political power.^[9]

Academic career[link]

Brand has held several prestigious academic positions, including:

• Writer-in-Residence, University of Toronto (1990–1991)
• Assistant Professor of English, University of Guelph (1992–1994)
• Ruth Wynn Woodward Professor in Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University (2000–2002)
• Writer-in-Residence, University of Guelph (2003–2004)
• Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Writer-in-Residence, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York (2004–2005)
• Distinguished Poet for the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Chair, Vancouver Island University (2006)
• Program Faculty in the Writing Studio, Banff Centre (2007; 2009)
• Brand is currently Professor of English at the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph where she also holds a University Research Chair

Writing career[link]

In Rivers Have Sources, Trees Have Roots (1986) Brand and co-author Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta interviewed a hundred people from the Canadian Native, Black, Chinese, and South Asian communities about their perspectives of racism and how it has impacted their lives. From these stories and recollections of childhood to workplace experiences, the authors critiqued the existence and commonality of racism, disparities and resistance. They argue that two themes exist where racism prevails in the lives of the interviewees and these themes are through "the culture of racism" and through the structural and institutional ways. Consequently, economic hardship, lack of employment and career choices and opportunities are some of the experiences identified by the minority, ethnic groups and immigrants.

Brand recognizes that there are also different forms of struggles and visions to combat racism. This book attempts to give each individual a voice, an opportunity to speak about their personal and immigration stories as part of a historical validation and as part of a third in a series of anti-racism literature. Women and men spoke of their anger, resentments, and complaints of racial tensions of abuse, isolation, staring, name calling and being treated as different and inferior. Brand addresses how racism is used as a powerful tool to censor oppositional voices and she opposes the media report that racism occurs in isolated cases or unusual crisis.^[10]

The use of personal experience and ancestral memory ^[6] can be found in Brand's writing strategies such as in a short story fiction, "St. Mary Estate",^[11] which is taken from Brand's book, Sans Souci and Other Stories, pp. 360–366, Brand begins the chapter "Maps of Memory: Places Revisited" by describing the colonial oppression that her fictional characters experienced in a place called "St. Mary Estate."

The narrator and her sister revisit the cocoa estate, the place of their birth and childhood and recall past experiences of racism and shame. The old place is filled with painful memories including the summer beach house that were used by rich 'white' people who the narrator refers to as "they" and whose big quarters were scrubbed and cleaned by her father who works as the overseer slave. The narrator recalls the beach house was empty two months of the year forbidden for them to use.

Through the narrative, Brand illustrates the discrimination and poverty issues because the families were cramped into their barracks made of thin cardboards with newspapers walls. Brand also employs various stylistic devices including the use of repetitive language and the use of anger and obscene language to expose the poor segregated quarters of slave barracks, overseer's shack, and estate workers barracks that depict the physical, social and psychological degradation endured by the slaves who were denied the basic human rights and freedom.

Other topics addressed in her poetry and novels include sexual exploitation of African women, and what Brand refers to as "a pandemic scourging the Diaspora" and declares, "We are born thinking of travelling back" which is suggestive of the individual and historic travelling and returning as experienced by her ancestors.^[12] As Brand writes: "Listen, I am a Black woman whose of ancestors were brought to a new world laying tightly packed in ships. Fifteen million of them survived the voyage, five million of them women; millions among them died, were killed, committed suicide in the middle passage." ^[6]

Brand has received many awards and her ongoing intellectual contribution are appreciated by the Black communities and women who find inspiration in her social activism and her writing among other women writers of African descent as expressed by writer Myrian Chancy that she found "it possible ...to engage in personal/critical work which uncovers the connections between us as Black women at the same time as re-discovering that which has been kept from us: our cultural heritage, the language of our grandmothers, ourselves." ^[13]

Critical reception[link]

Many of the first critics and scholars to evaluate Brand's early work regularly framed her writing in discourses of Caribbean national and cultural identity and Caribbean literary theory. Barbadian poet and scholar Edward Kamau Brathwaite referred to Brand as "our first major exile female poet."^[14] Academic J. Edward Chamberlain argued that she is "a final witness to the experience of migration and exile" whose "literary inheritance is in some genuine measure West Indian, a legacy of [Derek] Walcott, Brathwaite and others." ^[15] Their gesture toward a literal border crossing, from the Caribbean to Canada, speaks to the increasingly profound engagement with the idea of her own and others’ shifting locations, both literal and theoretical, evident in Brand's work.

Peter Dickinson argues that "Brand 'reterritorializes' … boundaries in her writing, (dis)placing or (dis)locating the national narrative of subjectivity … into the diaspora of cross-cultural, -racial, -gender, -class, and –erotic identifications." ^[16] These profound shifts in the way Brand conceptualizes national and personal affiliations to and boundaries around Caribbean and Canadian locations speak to what Dickinson calls "the politics of location [which] cannot be separated from the politics of 'production and reception.'" ^[17] Critic Leslie Sanders argues that, in her ongoing exploration of the notions of "here" and "there", Brand uses her own "statelessness" ^[18] as a vehicle for entering "'other people's experience'" and "'other places.'" ^[19] In Sanders’ words, "by becoming a Canadian writer, Brand is extending the Canadian identity in a way [Marshall] McLuhan would recognize and applaud." ^[20] Her work, then, according to Dickinson, Sanders and others, has been instrumental in changing the way that Canadian literature is ultimately constituted. Nevertheless, Dickinson concedes, "Because Brand's 'here' is necessarily mediated, provisional, evanescent – in a word 'unlocatable' – her work remains marginal/marginalizable in academic discussions of Canadian literary canons." ^[21]

In her book, Redefining the Subject: Sites of Play in Canadian Women's Writing, Charlotte Sturgess suggests that Brand employs a language—in the short story collection Sans Souci (1988) and the novel In Another Place, Not Here (1996), in particular—"through which identity emerges as a mobile, thus discursive, construct." ^[22] Echoing Dickinson's theory that Brand's work both dislodges and disturbs the borders safeguarding narratives about fixed national identities, Sturgess argues that Brand's "work uses language strategically, as a wedge to split European traditions, forms and aesthetics apart; to drive them onto their own borders and contradictions." ^[23] The work Brand's writing performs is, Sturgess insists, at least two-pronged: it "underline[s] the enduring ties of colonialism within contemporary society;" ^[24] and it "investigates the very possibilities of Black, female self-representation in Canadian cultural space." ^[23]

Speaking specifically of Brand's considerable body of poetry, Italian academic and theorist Franca Bernabei writes in the preamble to Luce ostinata/Tenacious Light (2007), the Italian-English selected anthology of Brand's poetry, that "Brand's poetic production reveals a remarkable variety of formal-stylistic strategies and semantic richness as well as the ongoing pursuit of a voice and a language that embody her political, affective, and aesthetic engagement with the human condition of the black woman—and, more exactly, all those oppressed by the hegemonic program of modernity." ^[25] On the back cover of the same collection, editor and critic Constance Rooke calls Brand "one of the very best [poets] in the world today", and goes on to "compare her to [Pablo] Neruda or—in fiction—to [José] Saramago."

Awards and honours[link]

Brand's work has garnered multiple literary awards and honours and her contribution to literature has been recognized by both Canadian and international literary communities:

• 1990: Shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry for No Language is Neutral (1990)
• 1997: Won the Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Trillium Book Award for Land to Light On (1997)
• 1997: Shortlisted for the Chapters Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Trillium Book Award for In Another Place, Not Here (1996)
• 1998: In Another Place, Not Here (1996) designated a New York Times Notable Book
• 1999: At the Full and Change of the Moon (1999) designated a Los Angeles Times Notable Book
• 1999: Included in The Village Voice's second annual "Writers on the Verge" literary supplement
• 2003: Won the Pat Lowther Award for thirsty (2002)
• 2003: Shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize for thirsty (2002)
• 2006: Won the City of Toronto Book Award for What We All Long For (2005)
• 2006: Won the Harbourfront Festival Prize in recognition of her important contribution to literature
• 2006: Shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry and the Trillium Book Award for Inventory (2006)
• 2006: Made a Fellow of the Academies for Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (formerly the Royal Society of Canada^[2])
• 2007: Shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award for Inventory (2006)
• 2009: Appointed Poet Laureate of Toronto
• 2011: Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize for Ossuaries^[26][27][28]

Bibliography[link]

Poetry[link]

• 1978: Fore Day Morning: Poems. Toronto: Khoisan Artists, ISBN 0-920662-02-1
• 1979: Earth Magic. Toronto: Kids Can Press, ISBN 0-919964-25-7
• 1982: Primitive Offensive. Toronto: Williams-Wallace International Inc., ISBN 08879501214
• 1983: Winter Epigrams and Epigrams to Ernesto Cardenal in Defense of Claudia. Toronto: Williams-Wallace International Inc., ISBN 0-676-97101-6
• 1984: Chronicles of the Hostile Sun. Toronto: Williams-Wallace, ISBN 0-88795-033-7
• 1990: No Language is Neutral. Toronto: Coach House Press, ISBN 0-88910-395-X; McClelland & Stewart, 1998, ISBN 0-7710-1646-8
• 1997: Land to Light On. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 0-7710-1645-X
• 2002: thirsty. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 0-7710-1644-1 (shortlisted for the 2003 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize)
• Excerpt from thirsty, online at CBC Words at Large
• 2006: Inventory. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 978-0-7710-1662-2
• Excerpt from Inventory, online at CBC Words at Large
• 2010: Ossuaries - 2010 (McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 978-0-7710-1736-0) (shortlisted for the 2011 Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize and Pat Lowther Award)

Fiction[link]

• 1988: Sans Souci and Other Stories. Stratford, ON: Williams-Wallace, ISBN 0-88795-072-8 and ISBN 0-88795-073-6
• 1996: In Another Place, Not Here. Toronto: Knopf Canada, ISBN 0-394-28158-6
• 1999: At the Full and Change of the Moon. Toronto: Knopf Canada, ISBN 0-394-28158-6
• 2005: What We All Long For. Toronto: Knopf Canada, ISBN 978-0-676-97693-9

Non-Fiction[link]

• 1986: Rivers have sources, trees have roots: speaking of racism (with Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta). Toronto: Cross Cultural Communications Centre, ISBN 0-9691060-6-8
• 1991: No Burden to Carry: Narratives of Black Working Women in Ontario, 1920s-1950s (with Lois De Shield). Toronto: Women's Press, ISBN 0-88961-163-7
• 1994: Imagination, Representation, and Culture
• 1994: We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women's History (with Peggy Bristow, Linda Carty, Afua P. Cooper, Sylvia Hamilton, and Adrienne Shadd). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0-8020-5943-0 and ISBN 0-8020-6881-2
• 1994: Bread Out of Stone: Recollections on Sex, Recognitions, Race, Dreaming and Politics. Toronto: Coach House Press, ISBN 0-88910-492-1; Toronto: Vintage, 1998, ISBN 0-676-97158-X
• 2001: A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging. Toronto: Random House Canada, ISBN 978-0-385-25892-0 and ISBN 0-385-25892-5
• 2008: A Kind of Perfect Speech: The Ralph Gustafson Lecture Malaspina University-College 19 October 2006. Nanaimo, BC: Institute for Coastal Research Publishing, ISBN 978-1-896886-05-3

Documentaries[link]

• Older, Stronger, Wiser. Dir. Claire Prieto. Assoc. Dir. Dionne Brand. (Part I, Women at the Well trilogy). National Film Board of Canada, Studio D, 1989
• Sisters in the Struggle. Dirs. Dionne Brand and Ginny Stikeman. (Part II, Women at the Well trilogy). National Film Board of Canada, Studio D, 1991
• Long Time Comin'. Dir. Dionne Brand. Perf. Faith Nolan and Grace Channer. (Part III, Women at the Well trilogy). National Film Board of Canada, Studio D, 1991
• Listening for Something: Adrienne Rich and Dionne Brand in Conversation. Dir. Dionne Brand. National Film Board of Canada, Studio D, 1996
• Beyond Borders: Arab Feminists Talk About Their Lives ... East and West. Dir. Jennifer Kawaja. Narr. Dionne Brand. National Film Board of Canada, 1999
• Under One Sky: Arab Women in North America Talk About the Hijab. Dir. Jennifer Kawaja. Narr. Dionne Brand. National Film Board of Canada, 1999
• Borderless: A Docu-Drama About the Lives of Undocumented Workers. Dir. Min Sook Lee. Narr. Dionne Brand. KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, 2006.

Anthologies Edited[link]

• 2007: The Journey Prize Stories: The Best of Canada's New Stories. (with Caroline Adderson and David Bezmozqis) comps. and eds. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ISBN 6771095619 and ISBN 978-0-7710-9561-0

Further reading[link]

Selected Anthologies[link]

• Gorjup, Branko, and Francesca Valente, eds. Luce ostinata / Tenacious Light. Ravenna, ITA: A. Longo Editore snc, 2007.
• Sanders, Leslie, comp. and ed. Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009.

Anthologies[link]

• Agard, John, and Grace Nichols, eds. A Caribbean Dozen: Poems From Caribbean Poets. London: Walker Books, 1994.
• Atwood, Margaret, and Robert Weaver, comps. and eds. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1995; rpt. 1997.
• Bennett, Donna, and Russell Brown, eds. A New Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Besner, Neil, Deborah Schnitzer, and Alden Turner, eds. Uncommon Wealth: An Anthology of Poetry in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Black, Ayanna, ed. Fiery Spirits and Voices: Canadian Writers of African Descent. Toronto: HarperPerennialCanada, 2000.
• Burnett, Paula. ed. The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, UK: Penguin Books, 1986.
• Chong, Denise, ed. The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Toronto: Penguin, 1997; rpt. 1998.
• Cook, Meira, ed. Writing Lovers: Reading Canadian Love Poetry by Women. Montreal, Kingston, ON: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005.
• Dabydeen, Cyril, ed. A Shapley Fire: Changing the Literary Landscape. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1987.
• DeShazer, Mary K., ed. Longman Anthology of Women's Literature. New York: Longman, 2001.
• Elton, Sarah, ed. City of Words: Toronto Through Her Writers' Eyes. Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2009.
• Geddes, Gary, ed. 15 Canadian Poets X 3. 4th ed. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Glave, Thomas, ed. Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2008.
• Head, Harold, ed. Canada in Us Now: The First Anthology of Black Poetry and Prose in Canada. Toronto: NC Press, 1976.
• Hutcheon, Linda, and Marion Richardson, eds. Other Solitudes: Canadian Multicultural Fictions. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 1980; rpt. Routledge, 1984; rpt. Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Karpinski, Eva C., and Ian Lea, eds. Pens of Many Colours: A Canadian Reader. 3rd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Canada Inc., 1993.
• Lake, Katherine, and Nairne Holtzed, eds. No Margins: Writing Canadian Fiction in Lesbian. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2007.
• Mordecai, Pamela, and Betty Wilson, eds. Her True-True Name: An Anthology of Women's Writing from the Caribbean. Oxford, UK: Heinemann, 1989.
• Morrell, Carol, ed. Grammar of Dissent: Poetry and Prose by Claire Harris, M. Nourbese Philip and Dionne Brand. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 1994.
• Ondaatje, Michael, comp. and ed. From Ink Lake: Canadian Stories Selected by Michael Ondaatje. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1995.
• Parini, Jay, ed. The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry. Boston, Massachusetts: Thompson Wadsworth, 2006.
• Queyras, Sina, ed. and intro. Open Fields: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets. New York: Persea Books, 2005.
• Ramraj, Victor J., ed. Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Writing in English. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press Ltd., 1995; rpt. 2001.
• Roberts, Tammy, et al. The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2002.
• Rooke, Constance, ed. Writing Away: The PEN Canada Travel Anthology. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994.
• Stott, Jon C., Raymond E. Jones, and Rick Bowers, eds. The Harbrace Anthology of Literature. 4th ed. Toronto: Thompson Nelson, 2006.
• Sullivan, Rosemary, and Mark Levene, eds. Short Fiction: An Anthology. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Sullivan, Rosemary, ed. The Oxford Book of Short Stories by Canadian Women in English. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Thesen, Sharon, ed. The New Long Poem Anthology. 2nd ed. Toronto: Talonbooks, 1999; rpt. 2001.
• ---, comp. and ed. The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2003 Shortlist. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2003.
• Thomas, Joan, and Heidi Harms, eds. Turn of the Story: Canadian Short Fiction on the Eve of the Millennium. Toronto: Anansi, 1999.
• Uppal, Priscilla, ed. 20 Canadian Poets Take on the World. Toronto: Exile, 2009.

Articles[link]

• Ball, John C. "White City, Black Ancestry: The Immigrant's Toronto in the Stories of Austin Clarke and Dionne Brand." Open Letter, 8.8 (Winter 1994): 9-19.
• Bentley, D.M.R. "'Me and the City That's Never Happened Before': Dionne Brand in Toronto." Canadian Architexts: Essays on Literature and Architecture in Canada, 1759-2005. Canadian Poetry Press. 26 Nov 2006. <http://www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/architexts/essays/brand.htm>
• Brathwaite, Edward Kamau. "Dionne Brand's Winter Epigrams." Canadian Literature, 105 (1985): 18-30.
• ---. "Dionne Brand's Global Intimacies: Rethinking Affective Citizenship." University of Toronto Quarterly, 76.3 (Summer 2007): 990-1006.
• ---. "Postcolonial Gothic: Ghosts, Iron and Salt in Dionne Brand's At the Full and Change of the Moon." Ebony, Ivory & Tea. Eds. Zbigniew Bialas, Krzysztof Kowalczyk-Twarowski. Katowice, Poland: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego, 2004. 211-227.
• Casas, Maria Caridad. "Orality and the Body in the Poetry of Lillian Allen and Dionne Brand: Towards an Embodied Social Semiotics." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 33.2 (2002): 7-32.
• Clarke, George E. "Harris, Philip, Brand: Three Authors in Search of Literary Criticism." Journal of Canadian Studies 35.1 (2000): 161-189.
• Cook, Meira. "The Partisan Body: Performance and the Female Body in Dionne Brand's No Language is Neutral." Open Letter 9.2 (1995): 88-91.
• Cuder-Dominguez, Pilar. "African Canadian Writing and the Narration(s) of Slavery." Essays on Canadian Writing 79 (2003): 55-74.
• Dalleo, Raphael. "Post-Grenada, Post-Cuba, Postcolonial: Rethinking Revolutionary Discourse in Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 12.1 (2010): 64-73.
• ---. Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere: From the Plantation to the Postcolonial. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011.
• Daurio, Beverley. "The Language of Resistance: In her Poetry, Dionne Brand is Rewriting History in a Way that Saves our Humanity." Books in Canada 19.7 (1990): 13-16.
• Dickinson, Peter. "In Another Place, Not Here: Dionne Brand's Politics of (Dis)Location." Painting the Maple: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Construction of Canada. Eds. Veronica Strong-Boag et al. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1998. 113-129.
• Forster, Sophia. "'Inventory is Useless Now but Just to Say': The Poetics of Ambivilence in Dionne Brand's Land to Light On." Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en Littrature Canadienne 27.2 (2002): 160-182.
• Fraser, Kaya. "Language to Light On: Dionne Brand and the Rebellious Word." Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en Littrature Canadienne 30.1 (2005): 291-308.
• Freiwald, Bina. "Cartographies of Be/Longing: Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here." Mapping Canadian Cultural Space: Essays on Canadian Literature. Ed. Danielle Schaub. Jerusalem: Magnus, 1998.
• Garvey, Johanna X.K. "'The Place She Miss': Exile, Memory, and Resistance in Dionne Brand's Fiction." Callaloo: A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters 26.2 (2003): 486-503.
• Georgis, Dina. "Mother Nations and the Persistence of 'Not Here.'" Canadian Woman Studies 20 (2000): 27-34.
• Gingell, Susan. "Returning to Come Forward: Dionne Brand Confronts Derek Walcott." Journal of West Indian Literature 6.2 (1994): 43-53.
• Goldman, Marlene. "Mapping the Door of No Return: Deterritorialization and the Work of Dionne Brand." Canadian Literature 182 (2004): 13-28.
• Hunter, Lynette. "After Modernism: Alternative Voices in the Writings of Dionne Brand, Claire Harris and Marlene Philip." University of Toronto Quarterly 62.2 (1992–1993): 256-281.
• Johnson, Erica L. "Unforgetting Trauma: Dionne Brand's Haunted Histories." Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal 2.1 (2004): 27. <http://scholar.library.miami.edu/anthurium/volume_2/issue_1/johnson-unforgetting.htm>
• Keefer, Janice Kulyk. "Introduction/Introduzione." Luce ostinata/Tenacious Light. Eds. Branko Gorjup and Francesca Valente. Ravenna, ITA: A. Longo Editore snc, 2007. 28-47.
• Luft, Joanna. "Elizete and Verlia Go to Toronto: Caribbean Immigrant Sensibilities at 'Home' and Overseas in Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here." Essays on Canadian Writing 77 (2002): 26-49.
• Mason, Jody. "Searching for the Doorway: Dionne Brand's thirsty." University of Toronto Quarterly: A Canadian Journal of the Humanities 75.2 (2006): 784-800.
• McCallum, Pamela, and Christian Olbey. "Written in the Scars: History, Genre, and Materiality in Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here." Essays on Canadian Writing 68 (1999): 159-182.
• McCutcheon, Mark A. "She skin black as water: The Movement of liquid imagery in Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here." Post Identity 3.2 (2002): 133-52. <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=postid&view=text&rgn=main&idno=pid9999.0003.206>
• Morrell, Carol. "Introduction." Grammar of Dissent: Poetry and Prose by Claire Harris, M. Nourbese Philip, and Dionne Brand. Comp. and ed. Carol Morrell. Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane, 1994. 9-24.
• Nuzhat, Abbas. "Dionne's Brand of Writing." Herizons 13.3 (1999): 18-22.
• Priestly, Brown, and Sylvia M. "Dionne Brand: The New Wave Writing that Hates Suffering." Open Letter 8.9 (1994): 97-102.
• Quigley, Ellen. "Picking the Deadlock of Legitimacy: Dionne Brand's 'Noise Like the World Cracking.'" Canadian Literature 186 (2005): 48-67.
• Renk, Kathleen J. "'Her Words Are Like Fire': The Storytelling Magic of Dionne Brand." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 27.4 (1996): 97-111.
• Sanders, Leslie. "Dionne Brand: (impossible de) prendre terre." ellipse 59 (1998): 57-70.
• ---. "Dionne Brand: (No) Land to Light On." Articulating Gender: An Anthology Presented to Professor Shirin Kudchedkar. Ed. Anjali Bhelande and Mala Pandurang. New Delhi: Pencraft International, 2000.
• ---. "'I Am Stateless Anyway': The Poetry of Dionne Brand." The Zora Neale Hurston Forum 3.2 (1989): 19-29.
• ---. "Introduction." Fierce Departures: The Poetry of Dionne Brand. Comp. and ed. Leslie Sanders. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009. ix-xv.
• Sarbadhikary, Krishna. "Recovering History: The Poems of Dionne Brand." Intersexions: Issues of Race and Gender in Canadian Women's Writing. Ed. Coomi S. Vivaina and Barbara Goddard. New Delhi: Creative, 1996. 59-63.
• Saul, Joanne. "'In the Middle of Becoming': Dionne Brand's Historical Vision." Canadian Woman Studies 23.2 (2004): 59-63.
• Sharpe, Jenny. "The Original Paradise." Transition 62 (1993): 48-57.
• Smyth, Heather. "Sexual Citizenship and Caribbean-Canadian Fiction: Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here and Shani Mootoo's Cereur Blooms at Night." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 30.2 (1999): 141-160.
• ---. "'The Being Together of Strangers': Dionne Brand's Politics of Difference and the Limits of Multicultural Discourse." Studies in Canadian Literature 33.1 (2008): 272-290.
• Sturgess, Charlotte. "Dionne Brand's Short Stories: Warring Forces and Narrative Poetics." Anglophonia: French Journal of English Studies 1 (1997): 155-160.
• ---. "Spirits and Transformation in Dionne Brand's Sans Souci and Other Stories." Etudes Canadiennes/Canadian Studies: Revue Interdisciplinaire des Etudes Canadiannes en France 35 (1993): 223-229.
• Thomas, H. Nigel. "Commentary on the Poetry of Dionne Brand." Kola: A Black Literary Magazine 1.1 (1987): 51-61.
• Walcott, Rinaldo. "'Tough Geography': Towards a Poetics of Black Space(s) in Canada." West Coast Line 22/33.1 (1997): 38-51.
• ---, and Leslie Sanders. "At the Full and Change of CanLit: An Interview with Dionne Brand." Canadian Woman Studies 20.2 (2000): 22-26.
• Wiens, Jason. "'Language Seemed to Split in Two': National Ambivalence(s) and Dionne Brand's No Language is Neutral." Essays on Canadian Writing 70 (2000): 81-102.
• Zackodnik, Teresa. "'I Am Blackening in My Way': Identity and Place in Dionne Brand's No Language is Neutral." Essays on Canadian Writing 57 (1995): 194-211.

Sources[link]

• Amin, Nuzhat et al. Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education Inc. 1999.
• Brand, Dionne. "Bread out of Stone," In Language In Her Eye, Ed. Libby Scheier, Sarah Sheard and Eleanor Wachtel. Toronto: Coach House Press. 1990.
• Brand, Dionne. No Language is Neutral. Toronto: Coach House Press. 1990.
• Brand, Dionne. Rivers Have Sources, Trees Have Roots: Speaking of Racism (1986) with Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta. Toronto: Cross Communication Centre 1986.
• Brand, Dionne. "St. Mary Estate," in Pens of Many Colours: A Canadian Reader (1993) Ed. Eva C. Karpinski and Ian Lea. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Canada Inc. 1993.
• Brand, Dionne. "Just Rain, Bacolet" ^[29]
• Kamboureli, Smaro. Making A Difference: Canadian Multicultual Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1996.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Canadian Poetry Online: Dionne Brand - Biography and two poems (I from Thirsty and II from Inventory)
• Dionne Brand's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize readings, including video clips

Saint James the Just
Icon of James
Martyr, Adelphotheos
Born	unknown
Died	62 (according to Josephus and Jerome) or 69 (Hegesippus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Caesarea)[1] Jerusalem
Honored in	All Christianity
Canonized	pre-congregation
Feast	May 3 (Roman Catholic), May 1 (Anglican), October 23 (Lutheran), (Episcopal Church (USA)), (Eastern Orthodox), December 26 (Eastern Orthodox)
Attributes	fuller's club; man holding a book
Controversy	James is sometimes identified with James, son of Alphaeus and James the Less. There is disagreement about the exact relationship to Jesus.

James (Hebrew: יעקב Ya'akov; Greek Ἰάκωβος Iákōbos), first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 or 69, was an important figure in Early Christianity. He is distinguished from the Apostle James by various epithets; he is called James the brother of the Lord by Paul (Galatians 1:19), James the brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just by Hegesippus and others, "James the Righteous", "James of Jerusalem", "James Adelphotheos" (Ἰάκωβος ὁ ἀδελφόθεος), and so on.

James became the leader of the Christian movement in Jerusalem in the decades after Jesus' death, but information about his life is scarce and ambiguous. Apart from a handful of references in the Gospels, the main sources for his life are the Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline epistles, the historian Josephus, and St. Jerome, who also quotes the early Christian author Hegesippus. The Epistle of James in the New Testament is traditionally attributed to him, and he is a principal author of the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15. In the extant lists of Hippolytus of Rome^[2], Dorotheus of Tyre, the Chronicon Paschale, and Dimitry of Rostov, he is the first of the Seventy Apostles, though some sources, such as the Catholic Encyclopedia,^[3] draw the conclusion that "these lists are unfortunately worthless".

Hegesippus in his fifth book of his Commentaries, writing of James, says "After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem."^[4]

As a consequence of the doctrine of perpetual virginity, which does not allow that Mary had children after Jesus, Jerome considered that the term "brother" of the Lord should be read "cousin," and concluded that James "the brother of the Lord," (Gal.1:19) is therefore James, son of Alphaeus, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, as well as James, the son of Mary Cleophas.^[5] He is not, however, identified with James the Great.^[5] Other Christian denominations consider the Matthew 1:25 statement that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son" to mean that Joseph and Mary did have normal marital relations after Jesus' birth, and that James, Joses, Jude, and Simon were the biological sons of Mary and Joseph; and, thus, Jesus' half-brothers. If the solomonic genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew is correct then James (Jacob) would be named after his paternal grandfather, another James (Jacob).

Epithet[link]

In the New Testament, James is simply "James", other than Paul's one reference to "James, the brother of the Lord" (Galatians 1:19).

Eusebius records that Clement of Alexandria related, "This James, whom the people of old called the Just because of his outstanding virtue, was the first, as the record tells us, to be elected to the episcopal throne of the Jerusalem church."^{[6][7][8][9][10]} The name also helps distinguish him from other important figures in early Christianity of the same name, such as James, son of Zebedee.

He is sometimes referred to in Eastern Christianity as "James Adelphotheos" (Greek: Iάκωβος ο Αδελφόθεος), i.e., "James the Brother of God". The oldest surviving Christian liturgy, the Liturgy of St James, called him "the brother of God" (Adelphotheos).^[11]

New Testament sources[link]

The earliest New Testament sources on James are the surviving Pauline Epistles from about the sixth decade, describing events roughly during 35–55. The Acts of the Apostles, written between 60 and 100, describes the same period. The Gospels, with a disputed dating ranging from about 50 to as late as 110, describe the period of Jesus' ministry, around 30. In these sources, there is more than one person named James,^[5] and different titles are used to distinguish between them.

Paul's epistles[link]

Paul briefly mentions meeting "James, the Lord's brother" in the Epistle to the Galatians:

Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.^[12]

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.^[13]

The third mention of James in Galatians is within the so-called "incident at Antioch". According to Paul, Peter cared about James's opinion and what the other Christians thought.

But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.^[14]

A "James" is mentioned in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, as one to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection. Notable is how Paul names only Peter and James among the disciples and others who saw Jesus:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.^[15]

Based on this identification, Paul might also be referring to James earlier in the same letter:

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?^[16]

This is generally taken as an indication that this James is the same as James, the younger brother of Jesus.^[5]

Acts of the Apostles[link]

There is a James mentioned in Acts, which the Catholic Encyclopedia identifies with James, the brother of Jesus:^[5]

But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.^[17]

James is also an authority in the early church at the Council of Jerusalem (James is quoting Amos 9:11–12).

And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day."^[18]

After this, there is only one more mention of James in Acts, meeting with Paul shortly before Paul's arrest:

And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.^[19]

Gospels[link]

The Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew also mention a James as Jesus' brother:^[5]

"– Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.^[20]

The Gospel of John never mentions anyone called James, but mentions Jesus' unnamed "brothers" as being present with Mary when Jesus attended the wedding at Cana (John 2:12), but later that his brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5).

Two disciples named James[link]

The Synoptic Gospels, similarly to the Epistle to the Galatians, recognize a core group of three disciples (Peter, John and James) having the same names as those given by Paul. However, the James in this group is sometimes called the brother of John, which would be James the Great, who is definitely not James the brother of Jesus.

In the list of the disciples found in the Gospels, two disciples named James are mentioned in the list of the twelve disciples:^[21]

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

James, the son of Zebedee, is also known as James the Great, who is not the same James as James the Just.^[5] James, son of Alphaeus, however, is usually identified with James the Less.

When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.^[22]

James, son of Mary[link]

A Mary is also later mentioned as the mother of a James, both in the Gospel of Mark and in the Gospel of Matthew. Catholic interpretation generally holds that this James is to be identified with James, the son of Alphaeus and James, the brother of Jesus.^[5]

Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome.^[23]

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.^[24]

Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.^[25]

Other sources[link]

The Jerusalem Church[link]

Fragment X of Papias (writing in the second century) refers to "James the bishop and apostle".^{[citation needed]} According to Eusebius, the Jerusalem church escaped to Pella during the siege of Jerusalem by the future Emperor Titus in 70 and afterwards returned, having a further series of Jewish bishops until the Bar Kokhba revolt in 130. Following the second destruction of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the city as Aelia Capitolina, subsequent bishops were Greeks.^[26] The evidence of Eusebius is confirmed by the account of the Bordeaux Pilgrim.^[27]

Early Christian apocrypha[link]

Some apocryphal gospels testify to the reverence Jewish followers of Jesus (like the Ebionites) had for James. The Gospel of the Hebrews fragment 21 confirms the account of Paul in 1 Corinthians regarding the risen Jesus' appearance to James, and this is mentioned also by the Gospel of Thomas (one of the works included in the Nag Hammadi library), saying 12, relates that the disciples asked Jesus, "We are aware that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to him, "No matter where you come [from] it is to James the Just that you shall go, for whose sake heaven and earth have come to exist." Epiphanius' (Panarion 29.4) describes James as a Nazirite.^{[citation needed]}

The pseudepigraphical First Apocalypse of James associated with James's name mentions many details, some of which may reflect early traditions: he is said to have authority over the twelve apostles and the early church; this work also adds, somewhat puzzlingly, that James left Jerusalem and fled to Pella before the Roman siege of that city in 70. (Ben Witherington suggests what is meant by this was that James's bones were taken by the early Christians who had fled Jerusalem).

The Apocryphon of James, the sole copy of which was found in the Nag Hammadi library and which may have been written in Egypt in the 3rd century,^[28] recounts a post-resurrection appearance of the risen Christ to James and Peter that James is said to have recorded in Hebrew. In the dialogue, Peter speaks twice (3:12; 9:1) but misunderstands Jesus. Only James is addressed by name (6:20), and James is the more dominant of the two.

The Gospel of James (or "Infancy Gospel of James"), a work of the 2nd century, also presents itself as written by James — a sign that his authorship would lend authority — and so do several tractates in the codices found at Nag Hammadi.

Relationship to Jesus[link]

Jesus' brothers — James as well as Jude, Simon and Joses — are named in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 and mentioned elsewhere. James's name always appears first in lists, which suggests he was the eldest among them.^[29] In the passage in Josephus's Jewish Antiquities (20.9.1), the Jewish historian describes James as "the brother of Jesus who is called Christ", although it is not known whether this is original or added by later Christian editors/copyists. Paul, recounting his conversion, recalls, "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother."^[30]

Interpretation of the phrase "brother of the Lord" and similar phrases is divided between those who interpret the phrase literally and those (Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and some Protestants) who presuppose the perpetual virginity of Mary and therefore do not also accept an absolutely literal interpretation.

Younger half-brother, son of Mary and Joseph[link]

The Mosaic Law advised married couples to be fruitful and have many children. If Mary and Joseph were zealous Jews, they would have had more children after Mary gave birth to Jesus, thus making James a brother of Jesus.

Christianity teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin, and Jesus is referred to as the "first-born son" of Mary, so James and the other brethren of Jesus would have been younger brothers.

Younger half-brother, son of Mary and a second husband[link]

A variant on this is presented by James Tabor,^[29] who argues that after the early and childless death of Joseph, Mary married Clopas, whom he accepts as a younger brother of Joseph, according to the Levirate law. According to this view, Clopas fathered James and the later siblings, but not Jesus.

Crossan suggested that Clopas was probably Jesus' older brother.^[31]

Older stepbrother, son of Joseph by an earlier marriage[link]

Jerome asserts in his tract The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary that the term first-born was used to refer to any offspring that opened the womb, rather than definitely implying other children.^[32]

The Protevangelium of James assumes the Greek nature of Jewish practices during this period in history and says that Mary was betrothed to an older relative in order to preserve her virginity and that Joseph already had children. In this case, James was one of Joseph's children from his previous marriage and, therefore, Jesus' stepbrother.

One argument supporting this view is that it would have been against Jewish custom for Jesus to give his mother to the care of John (who is not at all suspected to be a blood relative of Jesus) if Mary had other living sons. This is because the eldest son would take responsibility for his mother after the death of her husband.^[33] So any other sons of Mary should have taken on this responsibility if they existed, therefore arguing against a direct biological brother relationship.

Also, Aramaic and Hebrew tended to use circumlocutions to point out blood relationships; it is asserted that just calling some people "brothers of Jesus" would not have necessarily implied the same mother.^[34][35] Rather, something like "sons of the mother of Jesus" would have been used to indicate a common mother. Scholars and theologians who assert this point out that Jesus was called "the son of Mary" rather than "a son of Mary" in his hometown (Mark 6:3).^[34]

Cousin, son of a sister of Mary[link]

James, along with the others named "brethren" of Jesus, could also have been Jesus' cousins. This claim is justified by the fact that cousins were also called "brothers" and "sisters" in Jesus' postulated native language, Aramaic, which, like Biblical Hebrew, does not contain a word for cousin. ^[36] Furthermore, the Greek words adelphos and adelphe were not restricted to their literal meaning of a full brother or sister in the Bible; nor were their plurals.^[34][35] This use is still common in Greece and other Balkan cultures. This assumes, naturally, that the Middle Eastern authors' usage of Greek reflects their way of speaking. The tradition of considering cousins as brothers or sisters is still evident in most Eastern cultures; in some languages, the term cousin does not even exist.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275 – 339) reports the tradition that James the Just was the son of Joseph's brother Clopas and therefore was of the "brethren" (which he interprets as "cousin") of Jesus described in the New Testament.

This is echoed by Jerome (c. 342 – 419) in De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) – James is said to be the son of another Mary, wife of Clopas and the "sister" of Mary, the mother of Jesus – in the following manner:

James, who is called the brother of the Lord, surnamed the Just, the son of Joseph by another wife, as some think, but, as appears to me, the son of Mary, sister of the mother of our Lord of whom John makes mention in his book...

Jerome refers to the scene of the crucifixion in John 19:25, where three Marys – the mother of Jesus, Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene – are said to be witnesses. John also mentions the "sister" of the mother of Jesus, often identified with Mary of Clopas due to grammar. Mary "of Clopas" is often interpreted as Mary, "wife of Clopas". Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Clopas also need not be literally sisters, in light of the usage of the said words in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic.^[34]

Mary of Clopas is suggested to be the same as "Mary, the mother of James the younger and Joses", "Mary the mother of James and Joseph" and the "other Mary" in Jesus' crucifixion and post-resurrection accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. Proponents of this identification argue that the writers of the Synoptics would have called this Mary, simply, "the mother of Jesus" if she was indeed meant to be the mother of Jesus, given the importance of her son's crucifixion and resurrection: they also note that the mother of James and Joses is called "Maria", whereas the mother of Jesus is "Mariam" or "Marias" in Greek. These proponents find it unlikely that Mary would be referred to by her biological children other than Jesus at such a significant time (James happens to be the brother of one Joses, as spelled in Mark, or Joseph, as in Matthew).^[34][35][37]

Jerome's opinion suggests an identification of James the Just with the Apostle James, son of Alphaeus; Clopas and Alphaeus are thought to be different Greek renderings of the Aramaic name Halpai.^[35] Despite this, some biblical scholars tend to distinguish them; this is also not Roman Catholic dogma, though a traditional teaching.

Since this Clopas is, according to Eusebius, Joseph of Nazareth's brother (see above) and this Mary is said to be Mary of Nazareth's sister, James could be related to Jesus by blood and law.^[34]

Other relationships[link]

Also, Jesus and James could be related in some other way, not strictly "cousins", following the non-literal application of the term adelphos and the Aramaic term for brother.^[34][35] According to the apocryphal First Apocalypse of James, James is not the earthly brother of Jesus, but a spiritual brother ^[38] who according to the Gnostics "received secret knowledge from Jesus prior to the Passion." ^[39]

The Epistle of James[link]

The Epistle of James has been traditionally attributed to James the Just since 253, ^[40][41] although it is now common for scholars to disagree on its authenticity. ^[42]

Life[link]

The canonical writings of the New Testament, as well as other written sources from the Early Church, provide some insights into James's life and his role in the Early Church. There is mention of him in the Gospel of John and the early portions of the Acts of the Apostles. The Synoptics mention his name, but no further information. However, the later chapters of the Acts of the Apostles provide evidence that James was an important figure in the Christian community of Jerusalem.

Jerome (c. 347 – 420), in his De Viris Illustribus, argued that James was not Jesus' brother but his cousin, son of Mary of Cleophas, "the sister of the mother of our Lord of whom John makes mention in his book."^[43] After the Passion, Jerome wrote, the Apostles selected James as Bishop of Jerusalem. In describing James' ascetic lifestyle, De Viris Illustribus quotes Hegesippus's account of James from the fifth book of Hegesippus's lost Commentaries:

After the apostles, James the brother of the Lord surnamed the Just was made head of the Church at Jerusalem. Many indeed are called James. This one was holy from his mother's womb. He drank neither wine nor strong drink, ate no flesh, never shaved or anointed himself with ointment or bathed. He alone had the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies, since indeed he did not use woolen vestments but linen and went alone into the temple and prayed in behalf of the people, insomuch that his knees were reputed to have acquired the hardness of camels' knees.^[44]

Since it was unlawful for anyone but the High Priest of the Temple to enter the Holy of Holies, and then only once a year on Yom Kippur, Jerome's quotation from Hegesippus indicates that James was considered a High Priest. The Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions suggest this.^[45]

Jerome quotes the non-canonical Gospel of the Hebrews: "'Now the Lord, after he had given his grave clothes to the servant of the priest, appeared to James, for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him risen from the dead.' And a little further on the Lord says, 'bring a table and bread.' And immediately it is added, 'He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James the Just and said to him, "My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from the dead."'" And so he ruled the church of Jerusalem thirty years, that is until the seventh year of Nero.^[46] (See Jerome and the Early Church Fathers.)

The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas confirms that James was an important leader, stating, "The disciples said to Jesus: We know that you will depart from us; who is it who will lead us?" Jesus said to them, "Wherever you have come from, go to James the Just, for whom heaven and earth came to be."^[47][48]

Paul further describes James as being one of the persons to whom the risen Christ showed himself (1 Corinthians 15:3–8); later in 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions James in a way that suggests James had been married (9:5); and in Galatians, Paul lists James with Cephas (better known as Peter) and John as the three "pillars" of the Church (2:9) and who will minister to the "circumcised" (in general Jews and Jewish Proselytes) in Jerusalem, while Paul and his fellows will minister to the "uncircumcised" (in general Gentiles) (2:12). These terms (circumcised/uncircumcised) are generally interpreted to mean Jews and Greeks, who were predominant; however, this is an oversimplification, as 1st-century Judaea Province also had some Jews who no longer circumcised and some Greeks (called Proselytes or Judaizers) and others such as Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Arabs who did.

When Peter, having miraculously escaped from prison, must flee Jerusalem due to Herod Agrippa's persecution, he asks that James be informed (Acts 12:17).

When the Christians of Antioch were concerned over whether Gentile Christians need be circumcised to be saved, they sent Paul and Barnabas to confer with the Jerusalem church. James played a prominent role in the formulation of the council's decision (Acts 15:13ff). James was the last named figure to speak, after Peter, Paul and Barnabas; he delivered what he called his "decision" (Acts 15:19 NRSV)— the original sense is closer to "opinion".^[49] He supported them all in being against the requirement (Peter had cited his earlier revelation from God regarding Gentiles) and suggested prohibitions about eating blood as well as meat sacrificed to idols and fornication. This became the ruling of the Council, agreed upon by all the apostles and elders and sent to the other churches by letter.

When Paul arrives in Jerusalem to deliver the money he raised for the faithful there, it is to James that he speaks, and it is James who insists that Paul ritually cleanse himself at Herod's Temple to prove his faith and deny rumors of teaching rebellion against the Torah (Acts 21:18ff) (a charge of antinomianism).

Not only does the Book of Acts makes it clear that James led the Jerusalem Christian Church as its first leader, but this is supported by early Christian historians like Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria in the late 2nd century, who recorded the following: "For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem".^[46][50] (See the Early Church Fathers and Jerome.)

Death[link]

According to a passage found in existing manuscripts of Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews, (xx.9) "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" met his death after the death of the procurator Porcius Festus, yet before Lucceius Albinus took office (Antiquities 20,9) — which has thus been dated to 62. The High Priest Ananus ben Ananus took advantage of this lack of imperial oversight to assemble a Sanhedrin (although the correct translation of the Greek synhedion kriton is "a council of judges"), who condemned James "on the charge of breaking the law," then had him executed by stoning. Josephus reports that Ananus's act was widely viewed as little more than judicial murder and offended a number of "those who were considered the most fair-minded people in the City, and strict in their observance of the Law," who went as far as meeting Albinus as he entered the province to petition him about the matter. In response, King Agrippa replaced Ananus with Jesus, the son of Damneus.

George Albert Wells challenges the identification of the James whom Ananus ben Ananus had executed with James the Just, considering the words "who was called Christ" to be a later interpolation. Wells also noted that the Church Father Origen, who consulted the works of Josephus in around 248, related a different account of the death of James that linked it with the siege of Jerusalem, something not found in our current manuscripts of Josephus, ^[51] a fact that is repeated by mainstream Biblical scholars. ^[52][53]

Eusebius, while quoting Josephus's account, also records otherwise lost passages from Hegesippus (see links below) and Clement of Alexandria (Historia Ecclesiae, 2.23). Hegesippus's account varies somewhat from what Josephus reports and may have been an attempt to reconcile the various accounts by combining them. According to Hegesippus, the scribes and Pharisees came to James for help in putting down Christian beliefs. The record says:

They came, therefore, in a body to James, and said: "We entreat thee, restrain the people: for they are gone astray in their opinions about Jesus, as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade all who have come hither for the day of the passover, concerning Jesus. For we all listen to thy persuasion; since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just, and showest partiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade the people not to entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus: for all the people, and we also, listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon the summit of the temple, that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and thy words may be plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend the passover, all the tribes have congregated hither, and some of the Gentiles also."^[54] To the scribes' and Pharisees' dismay, James boldly testified that Christ "Himself sitteth in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven." The scribes and pharisees then said to themselves, "We have not done well in procuring this testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, that they may be afraid, and not believe him."

Accordingly, the scribes and Pharisees

...threw down the just man... [and] began to stone him: for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned, and kneeled down, and said: "I beseech Thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

And, while they were thus stoning him to death, one of the priests, the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the prophet, began to cry aloud, saying: "Cease, what do ye? The just man is praying for us." But one among them, one of the fullers, took the staff with which he was accustomed to wring out the garments he dyed, and hurled it at the head of the just man.

And so he suffered martyrdom; and they buried him on the spot, and the pillar erected to his memory still remains, close by the temple. This man was a true witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ.

—Fragments from the Acts of the Church; Concerning the Martyrdom of James, the Brother of the Lord, from Book 5.^[54]

Vespasian's siege and capture of Jerusalem delayed the selection of Simeon of Jerusalem to succeed James.

According to Schaff in 1904, this account by "Hegesippus has been cited over and over again by historians as assigning the date of the martyrdom to 69", though he challenged the assumption that Hegesippus gives anything to denote such a date.^[55]

Josephus does not mention in his writings how James was buried, which makes it hard for scholars to determine what happened to James after his death.

Modern interpretation[link]

Modern historians of the early Christian churches tend to place James in the tradition of Jewish Christianity; where Paul emphasized faith over observance of Mosaic Law, which he considered a burden, an antinomian disposition, James is thought to have espoused the opposite position, which is derogatively called Judaizing. One corpus commonly cited as proof of this are the Recognitions and Homilies of Clement (also known as the Clementine literature), versions of a novel that has been dated to as early as the 2nd century, where James appears as a saintly figure who is assaulted by an unnamed enemy some modern critics think may be Paul. Scholar James D. G. Dunn has proposed that Peter was the "bridge-man" (i.e. the pontifex maximus) between the two other "prominent leading figures": Paul and James the Just.^[56]

Traditional Christian theologians have maintained likewise that the two held the same beliefs; evangelicals claim that James's talk of works referred to works that God produced in Christians as evidence of conversion (as Paul himself assumes that works will follow faith). On the other hand, Orthodox and Catholic theologians claim that Paul did not discount the importance of works (citing passages such as Romans 6 and 8) and that James was not referring to ceremonial works of the Torah (citing the fact that at the First Council of Jerusalem, James declared that only a small portion of the Torah should be applied to Gentile converts).

The ossuary[link]

In the November 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, André Lemaire of the Sorbonne University in Paris published the report that an ossuary bearing the inscription "Ya'aqov bar Yosef akhui Yeshua" ('"James son of Joseph brother of Jesus") had been identified belonging to a collector, who quickly turned out to be Oded Golan. The ossuary was exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, late that year; but on June 18, 2003, the Israeli Antiquities Authority published a report concluding, based on an analysis of the patina, that the inscription is a modern forgery. Specifically, it appeared that the inscription had been added recently and made to look old by addition of a chalk solution.

On December 29, 2004, Golan was indicted in an Israeli court along with three other men — Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who teaches at Haifa University; collector Shlomo Cohen; and antiquities dealer Faiz al-Amaleh. They were accused of being part of a forgery ring that had been operating for more than 20 years. Golan denied the charges against him. According to the BBC, "when the police took Oded Golan into custody and searched his apartment they discovered a workshop with a range of tools, materials, and half finished 'antiquities'. This was evidence for a fraud of a scale far greater than they had suspected."^[57] However, on March 14, 2012, Golan was declared innocent of all charges of forgery, though with the judge saying this acquittal "does not mean that the inscription on the ossuary is authentic or that it was written 2,000 years ago" and "it was not proven in any way that the words 'the brother of Jesus' necessarily refer to the 'Jesus' who appears in Christian writings."^{[58] [59]}

Feast day[link]

In the Roman Catholic Church, the feast day of Philip the Apostle, along with that of James the Just, was traditionally observed on 1 May, the anniversary of the dedication of the church dedicated to them in Rome (now called the Church of the Twelve Apostles). The current ordinary calendar transfers this combined feast to May 3.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, James is commemorated as "Apostle James the Just, brother of Our Lord", and as such, multiple days are assigned to his feasts. His feast days are on October 23, December 26 and the next Sunday of the Nativity along with King David and Saint Joseph and January 4 among the Seventy Apostles.

In the Episcopal Church of the United States of America and Lutheran Church, James, brother of Jesus and martyr is commemorated on October 23.

Bibliography[link]

• Richard Bauckham. James: Wisdom of James, disciple of Jesus the sage. London: Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-10369-X (-3); Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church. London: T & T Clark, 1990, 2004. ISBN 0-567-08297-0 (paperback).
• Raymond E. Brown. An Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Doubleday, 1997. ISBN 0-385-24767-2
• Robert Eisenman; James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Faber & Faber, 1997.
• John Painter. Just James. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1997 ISBN 1-57003-174-6, review
• Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington, The Brother of Jesus. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003. ISBN 0-06-055660-9
• Francis Watson. Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles. Cultural background.
• Biblical Archaeology Review Articles in various issues in 2004 and 2005 concerning the ossuary.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James the Just

• James the Just, Cleopas'companion
• "The martyrdom of James, the brother of the Lord" Quotes from lost writings of Hegesippus in Eusebius
• Flavius Josephus Antiquities of the Jews Book 20, Chapter 9
• Jerome, De Viris Illustribus ch.2, the second chapter, directly following Simon Peter.
• Fragments of Papias
• Catholic Answers: The Brethren of the Lord
• Catholic Encyclopedia: St. James the Less, whom this article identifies as James the Just
• Catholic Encyclopedia: The Brethren of the Lord
• Jewish Encyclopedia: James
• Schaff's History of the Christian Churchon James, section 27
• James in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Traditional site of the Martyrdom of St. James in the Armenian church of St. James in Jerusalem (photo)