Historical Context
James belonged to the distinctive Syrian ascetic movement associated with Saint Maron (commemorated February 14), whose followers practiced a life of prayer and meditation in the open air, exposed to sun, rain, hail, and snow. This was, in the words of the contemporary historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus, a new type of asceticism that soon gained wide acceptance in Syria and Lebanon.
Theodoret, himself bishop of Cyrrhus, documented this movement in his Religious History, composed around 440. He records fifteen men and three women who followed the open-air ascetic practice, many of them trained or guided by Maron; the most prominent among Maron's disciples was Abraham of Cyrrhus, called the Apostle of Lebanon. Maron died around 410, placing James's own life and asceticism in the early-to-mid fifth century. In 452 a monastery was founded at Maron's tomb, known as Bet Maroun, which became the chief monastery of northern Syria.