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The Patron Saint of Hopeless Cases
1994
| SAINT JUDE First Century Apostle and martyr, he is usually identified with Thaddaeus (or Lebbeus), Jude (Judas), the brother of St James the Less, one of the brethren of the Lord and the author of the Epistle of Jude. It is not known when or by what means he became a disciple of Christ, nothing having been said of him in the gospels before we find him enumerated among the apostles and little is known of his life after Pentecost. According to Western tradition he joined with St Simon in preaching the Gospel in Persia where both were martyred, being beaten to death with clubs. Thus in art, Jude's usual emblem is a club. In modern times Jude has acquired considerable popularity as patron of hopeless cases . This Apostle's miraculous intervention in impossible or desperate causes is widely known, even among non-Catholics and pagans. Jude is frequently "thanked" in the "personal" sections of the sort of newpapers Our Saint would doubtless have spurned. Saint Jude was long neglected by the Faithful as an object of veneration because his name is identical to that of the infamous disciple who betrayed Christ and this patronage is said to have originated because nobody invoked him for anything. Consequently he favors even the most desperate situations of his clients. There are at least three ancient English dedications to SS. Simon and Jude, but none to either of them alone. The relics of both are believed to have been translated to St. Peter's, Rome, in the 7th-8th century. In East Anglian art, Jude often holds a ship while Simon holds a fish, possibly because they were believed, as cousins of Zebedee, to follow the same calling as him. Feast day (with Simon) October 28 In the East Jude alone on June 19 |
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