Saint James the Greater with two pilgrims,
oil on panel, 120 x 80 cm, framed

The present painting illustrates an episode of Saint James the Greater recounted in Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend.

According to the Golden Legend thirty men of Lorraine went on a pilgrimage to Saint James in 1063. All the men swore their faith to one another, except for one who did not engage in this covenant. One man got sick and his fellows stayed with him and waited for him to get better. After 15 days the men moved on leaving the sick man behind, except for the one man who did not make the promise. Upon nighttime the sick man died. In that night, Saint James appeared to him on horseback. Saint James comforted him and said that the pilgrim should give him the dead body and got up on the horse with him. They rode a 15 day journey in one night and finally arrived in Montoia, the destination of their pilgrimage. Then Saint James left them both, commanding the man alive, that he should bury the dead pilgrim and tell his fellows who broke their promise, that their pilgrimage will not profit them. The man did as he was told, and when his fellows came they marveled at how fast the man had gotten to Montoia. And the man told them everything that Saint James had done.