Atkinson, The Passions and the Homilies from Leabhar Breac (1887) — translated from the Irish.

¹ James the Great, son of Zebedee — brother of John the apostle and the wonderful evangelist — was preaching the word of God in the land of Judea. The druid named Hermogenes sent his disciple to James, and a company of the Pharisees along with him, to deny the name of the Son of God in the presence of James the great and honoured apostle. Philetus, then, was the name of that disciple. When they came to James, they kept saying that Christ was not the Son of God; but James refuted their arguments and proved from the testimonies of Scripture that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God.

² Then Philetus went to Hermogenes and said to him: “It seems to me,” he said, “that you cannot overcome the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ; for I myself saw him heal the blind, the lame and the lepers in the name of Christ, and I have heard from friends of mine that they saw him raise the dead. Moreover he has the holy Scripture committed to memory, and it is that which proves that the Christ whom the Jews crucified is the Son of God. This is my counsel to you,” he said: “go to him and ask his pardon, for your sorcery will profit you nothing, after what I have said to you.” “I will go to him,” said Hermogenes, “and I will ask his pardon, and he will follow me as every disciple does.”

³ Then Hermogenes’ wrath seized him when he heard that, and he had Philetus bound in his presence, and said: “If James frees you from the bonds that are on you, I will believe in him.” Thereupon Philetus sent a servant to James to tell him of it. Then James sent his servant with his own sweat-cloth to where Philetus was; and as the cloth touched them, the bonds were unfastened and fell off him at once. After that Philetus went to James, and kept accusing Hermogenes and exposing his sorcery before him.

⁴ Then Hermogenes was filled with rage, for it grieved him that his disciple had left him: he aroused demons through sorcery, and sent them to James. He said to them: “Go,” said he, “to James and to Philetus my disciple, and bring them to me, that I may contend with them — lest they carry off my disciples and seduce them.” Then the demons came to James — and this is how James was, at prayer then — and they said to him, wailing and crying in the air above him: “O apostle of God,” they said, “have pity on us before the time of our damnation, for we are already in pain.” “Why have you come here?” said James. “Hermogenes,” said the demons, “sent us to bring you and Philetus to him; but when we came here, the angels of the Lord bound us in bonds of fire, and they are burning us.”

⁵ “May the angels of God loose you,” said James, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and go to Hermogenes, and do him no harm, but keep him alive in his own form.” The demons went to Hermogenes and said to him: “Why did you send us to be tormented and crucified by James?” The demons bound his hands behind his back and brought him to James. James said to him: “You savage and ignorant man — why did you become an enemy to the human race [that is, of the devil], and why do you not look at the one [that is, the devil] who has sent his ministers to lead me astray, so that they are under my power in spite of him? I did not let them go back to you for your own harm.”

⁶ “Release us,” said the demons to James, “that we may repay your mercy, and our own mercy upon him — on whomever we get power for your sake.” James said to them: “Why do you ask to do harm to Philetus who is in your presence?” “We cannot harm the one who is under your protection,” said the demons. Then James said to Philetus: “As for the one who bound you,” said he, “release him — so that people may learn what distinction there is among the followers of Jesus; for good it is that they do for the sake of evil. The one who sent demons to carry you into bondage — free him, and let him be freed from demons, and let him go by whatever road he wills.”

⁷ Then Philetus released Hermogenes from his bonds; and Hermogenes was silent thereafter, and James said to him: “Go by whatever road you will,” said he, “for it is not our teaching to compel anyone to come to us.” “Now I know,” said Hermogenes, “the evil power of the demons against men; and unless you give me a token, the demons will carry me off to various torments.” “Take my own staff with you,” said James, “and it will go with you by every road you wish without being hurt.” Then Hermogenes took the staff in his hand and went to his house; and he loaded on his own back two vessels full of books, and on the back of his disciple, and went to James, and threw himself at James’s feet. Hermogenes wanted to burn them. “Do not do that,” said James, “lest their fumes do harm to the people; but drown them in the middle of the sea!” And Hermogenes did so promptly, and came to the apostle, and threw himself down before him, and said to him: “Lord,” he said, “forgive me the guilt of every wrong I have done you.” “If it is true repentance you do,” said James, “God will pardon you.” “Is it not a token of repentance in me,” said Hermogenes, “that I drowned all my books?”

⁸ “Go then,” said the apostle, “to faith and belief; and everyone you led astray hitherto through sorcery — tell them now that what you used to say and affirm to them was false; and the idol you used to worship hitherto — break it; and the wealth you gained by the devil’s mouth — distribute it to God’s poor; so that you may now be a son of God, after having been the devil’s hitherto.” “All that I will do,” said Hermogenes. So Hermogenes believed in the Lord through James’s teaching, and he kept God’s commandment from then on, so that God afterwards wrought many wonders and miracles through him.

⁹ When the Jews saw that Hermogenes with his household and his disciples believed in Christ, they gave a bribe to the two centurions who were in Jerusalem to arrest James — Lysias and Theoctus were their names. James was arrested then, and the Jews set druids of the Pharisees to dispute with him, and they said: “Why did you make known to us that the Christ who was crucified between the thieves [is the Son of God]?” James said — and he was full of the grace of the Holy Spirit: “Beloved brethren,” said he, “sons of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob — God promised your father Abraham that peoples without number would be born of his seed; Abraham himself promised — the friend of God before he was circumcised — when he said, ‘A maiden shall bear a son, and his name shall be God of heaven and earth’; for it was not in circumcision but in faith that Abraham was called the friend of God; from which it is certain that only he who believes in Him is God’s friend.” “Who believes in God?” said the Jews. “He who believes the prophecy of Moses,” said James, “when the prophet Isaiah said in prophecy: “the Lord shall raise up for you a great prophet like Moses.” That wonderful prophet prophesied the birth of Christ; the prophet Jeremiah prophesied, saying: “He shall come who shall redeem you, O Jerusalem, and these shall be His signs: He shall give their eyes to the blind, hearing to the deaf, He shall raise the dead by His word.” And the prophet Daniel prophesied the birth of Christ, saying: ’the Son of Man shall come, and He shall take lordship and power over the world’; and the Lord Himself said to David son of Jesse: “I will give you of the fruit of your womb one who shall take the kingdom in your stead.” Isaiah the prophet also said of His passion: “the Son of God shall be led like a gentle lamb to the sacrifice”; and David said in the person of God Himself: “they pierced my feet and my hands, and they parted my garments, and cast lots upon them”; and David also said of Christ’s resurrection: “I will arise from the dead, for the sake of the wretched people who are in hell”; and the same man said of the resurrection: “the Son of God ascended and was received up on the steps of the cherubim”; and David also said: “the Son of God shall sit at the right hand of God the Father in heaven”; and the Lord Himself said to Jesus: “sit at my right hand”; and the same prophet said of His coming on the day of judgement: “the Lord shall come openly, and an unbearable fire shall blaze before Him, and a great tempest round about Him.” All these things, then,” said James, “have been fulfilled in our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is He who healed every sickness; it is He who gave sight to the blind by casting His spittle on their faces — as he was born blind from his mother — so that it was proven by that miracle that it was He who shaped Adam out of the clay of the earth; for Christ made spittle of clay and put it in place of his eyes, and healed him at once. We [that is, the apostles] asked Christ,” said James, “which of them had sinned — he himself, or his parents — since he was born blind? ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ said Christ, “but that the miracles of God might be made manifest in him.” For it was He who made him: God thereby healed the thing that had not been formed at first — namely, the eyes. After that, He healed the paralytic, and cleansed lepers, and gave sight to the blind, and cast out demons, and raised the dead.”

¹⁰ Then all the Jews said with one voice: “Christ is an enemy of death,” said they, “for He was betrayed by His own disciple — by Judas.” “What then, beloved brethren, sons of Abraham,” said James; “the prophets spoke those things through the coming of the Holy Spirit in them — the birth of Christ, and His passion, and His resurrection from death,” said he; “let each of you repent, and know that the gentiles believed the voices of the prophets, and believe you also in the high doctrines and in the prophets who foretold Christ, the Son of God.”

¹¹ While James was at that teaching, God worked a wonder upon the Jews, so that they all said with one voice: “We have committed a great sin,” said they; “and give us pardon.” “Do not despair,” said James, “but believe in the Lord, and let baptism be given you, that your sins may be put away from you.”

¹² Now when Abiathar, the priest of Jerusalem, saw many of the people believing in Christ through James, he was seized with rage and fury, and gave many bribes to the band who were leagued with him against James. Then one of the Pharisees came and threw a halter about James’s neck, and dragged him to the house of Herod Agrippa — he was judge over the people of Israel at that time. And Herod gave judgement that he should be beheaded.

¹³ Now as James was being led to be beheaded, a paralytic lay in their way, who said: “James,” said he, “apostle of Jesus, deliver me from my sickness, for I am tormented in all my limbs.” “Arise,” said James, “in the name of Jesus Christ — it is for His name’s sake that I am being brought to be beheaded; and bless Him, and you shall be whole.” The sick man arose whole at once, and blessed the name of God. When the Pharisee — Josias was his name, the one who had tied the halter about the apostle’s neck — saw the miracle that was wrought there, he bowed down to the apostle, and kept begging his forgiveness. When the apostle perceived that the grace of God had come upon him, he said to him: “Do you believe that Jesus Christ, whom the Jews crucified, is the Son of God?” “I believe,” said Josias, “and my faith shall be my belief for ever — that He whom you declare is the Son of God.”

¹⁴ Then Abiathar the priest said to Josias: “Unless you renounce James, and unless you curse the name of Christ, you shall die along with him.” “You are accursed,” said Josias, “and all the gods of idols with you; and blessed is the name of Jesus Christ — it is He whom James declares.” “Give him blows in the face,” said Abiathar; and he sent word to Herod that Josias should be slain along with James.

¹⁵ Then they came to the place of execution, and James said to the executioner: “Give us water first, before you kill us.” A vessel full of water was brought him, and James said to Josias: “Do you believe in God — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit?” “I believe,” said Josias, “that He is one almighty God.” Then James poured the water over him, and laid his hand on his head and blessed him, and put the sign of Christ’s cross on his face; and he was beheaded then along with the apostle of the Lord — to whom be glory and honour in heaven and on earth for ever and ever. Finit. Amen.

Here follows the Passion of Andrew the Apostle.