Who Was Saint Jude

Subject: History

Description: With the Saint Jude’s day storm battering our shorelines at the time of writing, I decided to find out who Saint Jude was.

Posted by David Caldwell on 27/10/13 at 20:43

Saint Jude

With the Saint Jude’s day storm battering our shorelines at the time of writing, I decided to find out who Saint Jude was.

Saint Jude was one of the twelve apostles and a contemporary of Jesus, his name was originally translated as Judas but this was confusing to the readers of the early gospels, which is probably why one is known as ‘Judas Iscariot’ and the other as ‘Judas not Iscariot’. It was far simpler for scholars to change his name to Jude. Imagine if there had been two disiples called Dave.

Many believe that Jude may even have been the brother of Jesus.

Death

Saint Jude was martyred in Beirut alongside Saint Simon the Zealot in the year 65ce, like many early martyrs the method of their death became their symbol, in this instance it was the axe. Some believe that his remains were taken to Rome to be buried under Saint Peters Basilica while others believe that he is interred in a remote Armenian monastery on an island in the middle of a lake.

Depiction

Saint Jude is often depicted with a flame above his head, a reference to him being present at Pentecost. He is also depicted carrying an image of Christ, this is linked to a story where he miraculously cured a king of illness.

Patron Saint

Saint Jude is the Patron Saint of the impossible and of hopeless causes, he is also the patron saint of the Chicago Police department.

Thousands of pilgrims still visit the Shrine of St Jude in the quiet Kent market town of Faversham. The shrine is looked after by an order of Carmelite friars.

Storm

Tomorrow will be October 28th 2013 and a storm is foecast to hit southern England, journalists are already calling it the Saint Jude's day storm.

I hope Judes name will not be connected to a deverstating storm, and if anyone can prevent this destruction then it could only be the patron saint of hopeless causes.

Keywords: Saint Jude, St Jude, Storm, Judas, Pilgrim, Faversham