MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Saint — Jude Thaddeus

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St. Jude Thaddeus
early 1st century — 1st century, traditionally Persia or Beirut
Apostle of the Impossible — patron of hopeless causes
Altar of St. Joseph, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican, Vatican City
Feast
October 28 (with St. Simon)
✠ MartyrBeaten to death with a club in Persia, together with Simon the Zealot → The Martyrs
Life

Jude, also called Thaddeus or Lebbaeus, was one of the Twelve. He is best identified by the question he asks Christ at the Last Supper, in John 14:22: 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?' — to which Christ answers with the great promise of the indwelling of the Trinity: 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'

He is widely identified as the author of the New Testament Letter of Jude — a brief warning against false teachers and a call to 'contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.' Tradition holds that he preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia, Persia, and Armenia, in partnership with Simon the Zealot.

Both apostles were martyred together in Persia — Jude beaten to death with a club, Simon sawed in two — and their relics were eventually translated to Rome. The popular devotion to Jude as 'patron of impossible causes' arose because, his name being so close to Judas Iscariot's, the faithful for centuries avoided invoking him — leaving him 'free' to attend especially to the cases no other saint was hearing.

Miracles & Phenomena

  • The Image of Edessa

    Eastern tradition holds that Jude brought to King Abgar V of Edessa a portrait of Christ — the 'Image not made by human hands' (Mandylion) — and healed the king of leprosy by touching it to his face. The image, perhaps the source of the iconography of the Holy Face, became a central relic of Eastern Christianity.

  • The Modern Devotion

    The astonishing 20th-century rise of devotion to Jude — particularly among the poor in Chicago and Latin America during the Depression — has produced an unbroken stream of testimonies of intercessions for what the petitioners considered 'impossible.' The National Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago is one of the largest devotional centres in the United States.

Relics
  • Body
    Relics of Sts. Simon and Jude
    Beneath the altar of St. Joseph, transept of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

    Their relics were translated together to St. Peter's, where they have remained for centuries. A small fragment is venerated at the National Shrine of St. Jude, Chicago.

  • Object
    The Mandylion / Image of Edessa
    Traditionally lost; some traditions identify it with the Holy Face of Genoa or Manoppello
Iconography
  • St. Jude with the Image of Christ and a Flame

    His standard attributes: a medallion of Christ's face on his chest (from the Mandylion legend), a club or axe (martyrdom), and often a tongue of flame on his head — recalling Pentecost. He is among the most easily recognised apostles in devotional art.

Prayers to This Saint
  • Novena to St. Jude the ApostleNovena

    The nine days before 28 October as an American manual gave them in 1897 — thirty years before the Claretian shrine made 'the saint of hopeless cases' a household name — with the litany and the prayer 'Glorious apostle, martyr and relative of Jesus'.

    Read the full prayer →
Patronages
Hopeless and desperate causesHospitalsArmenia (co-patron)The Chicago Police DepartmentLost causes generally
Sources & Further Reading
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