5 things each to know about St. Simon and St. Jude, apostles
Sts. Simon and Jude, pray for us!
The Church celebrates the Feast of Sts. Simon and Judes, Apostles, on Oct. 28. Here are five things to know about each of these men.
- Jude is also called Thaddeus (see Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18).
- Jude is not the same person as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus (see John 14:22-23).
- St. Jude is typically depicted holding an image of Jesus in his hand. When a local king asked Jesus to cure his leprosy, he sent for an artist to bring him a drawing of Jesus. Impressed with the king’s show of faith, Jesus then placed a cloth to his face, leaving his image. Jesus then gave this image to St. Jude, who used it to cure the king of his leprosy.
- St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes.
- The Claretian Missionaries founded in 1929 the National Shrine of Saint Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago.
- St. Simon was the son of Cleophas, the brother of Joseph, making him Jesus’ cousin.
- Simon is not the same person as Simon Peter known as St. Peter (see Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13).
- He is called Simon the Zealot, a name that probably alludes to being associated with, or at least, being sympathetic toward, the Zealot movement that wanted a revolutionary overthrow of the occuying Romans.
- The East claims Simon died a peaceful death at Edessa. In the West, Simon is said to have preached in Egypt, then traveled to Persia with Jude (who had been working in Mesopotamia) where they were both martyred.
- St. Simon is the patron of woodcutters and tanners, among others.
Sources:
Butler’s Lives of the Saints: New Concise Edition by Paul Burns (Liturgical Press, 2003)
