The feast was celebrated on May 1st until 1955, when the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker was instituted on that day; then, the feast of the two apostles was moved to the first liturgically free day in May, which was the 11th. Now, with the reform of the calendar, the first free day is the 3rd.
We do not know with historical certainty what the apostolic activity of the two apostles was after the ascension of the Divine Master. Ancient sources usually say that Scythia was the mission field of Philip and agree that he died in Hierapolis of Phrygia, crucified (some say stoned). However, the ancients confused the Apostle Philip with Philip the Deacon and mixed their stories. It seems that the apostle’s relics were taken to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Pelagius I (6th century) and placed in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles; May 1st is the anniversary of the dedication of this church (year 570).
No less crude is the confusion that persists (and continues in the Roman Martyrology and liturgy) between James, the brother of the Lord, who in the Gospel of Mark (15:40) is called «the Less,» that is, the small (in stature), and the apostle, who explicitly appears only in the lists of the apostles in the New Testament. This confusion between the Apostle James, son of Alphaeus, and the homonymous relative of the Lord, head of the Church of Jerusalem after Peter fled, ordered to be stoned by the high priest Ananus, or according to Hegesippus, thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple and finished off by a fuller, means we celebrate in fact in one solemnity two great figures of sacred history.
The supposed relics of James (it is unclear which of the two) were brought to Rome and, esteemed as those of the apostle, were venerated together with those of Saint Philip in the aforementioned basilica.
