St. Jude SCC

Birth

St Jude the apostle was born in the 1st century AD in Galilee, Judea and died around 65AD in Beirut,
Lebanon. He was one of Jesus ‘original twelve Apostles. Jude is a Hebrew name meaning praise.

St Jude was born into a Jewish family in Peneas, a town in Galilee portion of ancient Palestine, the same
region that Jesus grew up in. he spoke Greek and Aramaic and he was a farmer. He was the brother of st James the less, and was likely a cousin of Jesus because his mother Mary was the virgin Mary’s cousin.

St Jude is the patron saint of desperate cases and is also known as the saint for the hopeless and the despaired he is also known by the name judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus.

Preaching 

St Jude preached the gospel in Judea, Samaria, Galilee, the fertile crescent, Libya, turkey, and Persia. He
preached the gospel with great passion, often in the most difficult circumstances. Through the power of
the holy spirit, he made profound differences in people’s lives as he offered them the word of God. He is
a symbol of choosing faith when all is lost. He is known for asking Jesus during the last supper why he
wouldn’t show himself to the world after the resurrection.

Confusion with judas Iscariot

St Jude is often confused with judas Iscariot who betrayed jesus.in the bible St Jude is referred to as
judas but not Iscariot in john 14:22.

The image of St Jude often includes a flame around his head, which represent his presence at Pentecost, when he accepted the holy spirit alongside the other apostles, another attribute is St Jude holding the image of Christ, in the image of Edessa sometimes he can also be seen holding a carpenter’s ruler or is depicted with a scroll or book, “the epistle of Jude.”

Death

St Jude was martyred by a Pegan mob in Beirut, who clubbed him to death and then shattered his head
with an axe. His body was brought to Rome and placed in a crypt beneath St peter’s basilica. 

Pilgrims came to St Jude’s grave to pray and many reported a powerful intercession, leading to the title “the saint for the hopeless and the despaired”. Two saints, St Bridget of Sweden and St Bernard had visions from God asking them to accept St Jude as the “patron saint of the impossible”

The national shrine of Saint Jude was founded in 1955 and can be found in England.