St. James the Greater, our Patron, was the son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of St. John, whom Jesus loved. First a disciple of John the Baptist, James later became one of the favored Apostles of Christ. Our Lord's love and esteem for our Patron permitted him to be present at the raising of Hairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and the Agony of Gethsemane. The Galilean origin of St. James in some degree explains the burning impetuosity and severe temper which earned for him and St. John the name of "Sons of Thunder." James is styled "the Greater" to distinguish him from the Apostle James "the Less," who was probably short of stature. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that "He (Herod Agrippa I) killed James, the brother of John, with the sword" in 44 A.D.

 

Reverend James A. Timmins was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1847. He received his early education in the public schools since there was no parish school in the town at that time. After attending Lafayette College and St. Bonaventure's College, Allegheny, New York, he entered St' Charles' Seminary, then at Eighteenth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, and was ordained in the Cathedral by Archbishop Wood on July 6, 1871. Of the fifty-eight years of priesthood, he spent forty-five years at the Rectory of St. Michael's Church in Chester, Pennsylvania. Father Timmins was loved and respected by all who knew him. Quiet, cultured and refined, he was a perfect gentleman. He was a real scholar, possessing an enormous and valuable library, which he used to the greatest possible advantage. He willed $100,000 to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to build a boys' secondary school. The new school was never built. Instead, the Archdiocese made a switch - they kept the $100,000; renamed the existing St. Robert's School to St. James high School for Boys; and built a new St.Robert's School and church at 20th Street and Providence Avenue. Nevertheless, Father Timmins' vision to provide a secondary school for the young men of hardworking Catholic parents was fulfilled. The St' James community is indebted to his vision and generosity in founding our school.