October 28

St Jude Thaddeus: feast day October 28, novena and prayer

St Jude's feast day is October 28, kept with St Simon in the Catholic and Anglican calendars; Orthodox churches honour him on June 19. One of the Twelve, he is not Judas Iscariot. Below: his names, the novena and a 1929 prayer.

Patronage: hopeless or difficult causes
Era: 1st century
Themes: hope

When is St Jude's feast day?

St Jude's feast day is October 28, a Wednesday in 2026. The Roman Catholic calendar keeps it as the feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles. The Church of England's Common Worship calendar lists "Simon and Jude, Apostles" among its Festivals on the same day. Simon the Zealot, who shares the feast, has his own page on this site. Eastern Orthodox churches keep a different day. The Orthodox Church in America remembers "Apostle Jude the Brother of the Lord" on June 19. Churches that follow the older Julian calendar keep that June 19 on July 2 of the civil calendar. All twelve apostles are also honoured together on June 30. The Orthodox Thaddeus of August 21 is a different man: one of the Seventy, born in Edessa.

One apostle, four names

Matthew and Mark call him Thaddaeus; in Matthew 10:3 the King James Version reads "Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus". Luke and Acts name him Judas of James (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13). The King James Version renders this "the brother of James". The World English Bible and American Standard Version say "the son of James", the Berean Standard Bible "son of James", and the Douay–Rheims keeps "Jude of James". John calls him "Judas, not Iscariot" (John 14:22). Catholic tradition, as the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia and Benedict XVI present it, takes these names to mean one man.

Not Judas Iscariot

Two of the Twelve were called Judas. Luke names them one after the other: Judas of James, then Judas Iscariot, "which also was the traitor" (Luke 6:16, KJV). At the Last Supper John marks the difference with "Judas, not Iscariot" (John 14:22). Iscariot was the son of Simon (John 6:71), and he went to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–15). Jude and Judas are English forms of one Greek name. Many writers keep "Jude" for the apostle, as the Douay–Rheims does in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. The 1929 booklet quoted below says its life of him will call him Jude Thaddeus, "not simply as St. Jude", so that the martyr's name is not confused with the traitor's.

His question at the Last Supper

His only words in the Gospels come at the Last Supper. He asked why Jesus would show himself to the disciples and not to the world (John 14:22). Jesus answered that he and the Father would come to anyone who loves him and keeps his word (John 14:23). In his 2006 audience on Simon and Jude, Benedict XVI drew from this exchange that the risen Christ is recognized with an open heart.

The Letter of Jude: the same man?

The Letter of Jude names its writer as "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1:1, KJV). It urges readers to "contend for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3, Douay–Rheims). It also asks them to keep themselves in the love of God (Jude 1:20–21). Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 name a Judas among the brothers of Jesus, beside James. Whether the writer is the apostle is debated. He does not call himself an apostle, and verse 17 speaks of "the apostles" as a group. Some critics read this as a sign of a later date. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia answers that Jude meant the scattered apostles, and it judges it "most highly probable" that he was one of the Twelve. Tradition attributes the letter to the apostle. The Orthodox Church in America's life of Jude, the brother of the Lord, also calls him Thaddaeus and counts him among the Twelve.

Later traditions and his patronage

Later tradition, as Vatican News recounts it, has him preach in Syria, Armenia and Persia, where he worked and died with Simon. Their relics are kept in St Peter's Basilica. The Orthodox life ends instead with his martyrdom near Mount Ararat in Armenia, around the year 80. These are traditions, not historical records. His title as patron of hopeless cases is older than his American fame. In December 1888 the Notre Dame Scholastic noted an Ave Maria article on "St. Jude (Thaddeus)", "the apostle and patron of hopeless cases". In the United States, devotion to him as patron of hopeless or difficult causes grew after a Chicago shrine opened in 1929. Until then he was little known to most Catholics.

What is a novena?

A novena is a Catholic devotion: prayer on nine days, private or public, for a particular grace. The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia defines it as "a nine days' private or public devotion". It takes as its model the apostles' nine days of prayer before Pentecost. Jude was among them in the upper room (Acts 1:13–14). The same article records an early warning, from the theologian Jean Gerson, against superstitious abuse of a novena. A St Jude novena said on nine days in a row and ending on the feast begins on October 20. The 1929 Chicago booklet below also describes a novena of nine Thursdays or nine Sundays in a row. After the prayer it adds the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, each said three times. A novena is prayer, not a formula: nothing in it guarantees an outcome, and this page makes no such promise.

A prayer to St Jude, printed in 1929

This is the novena prayer in Life of St. Jude Thaddeus, a booklet by William A. Marchant, O.P., from the Dominican Fathers' Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus in Chicago. Its imprimatur, from Cardinal Mundelein, is dated October 5, 1929. An earlier version addressed to "you" appeared in The Sign magazine in May 1926. The words follow the 1929 printing (pages 20–21) exactly: "Most holy apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of his enemies has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally as the patron of hopeless cases and of things despaired of. Pray for me who am so miserable; make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (here make your request) and that I may bless God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen." Its "particular privilege" and its claim that the Church invokes him "universally" are the language of devotion, not a teaching of the Church.

Sources and references

Cross references

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