St. Jude

St. Jude was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus.  He is also known by the name Thaddaeus in the Bible. The name Jude means give of joy and Thaddeus means generous and kind.  One of the reasons Jude’s name may have been changed was to make sure to differentiate him from the traitor Judas Iscariot.

St. Jude is important because he is credited for writing one of the devotions which discuss the ability of “ordinary people to call upon their powerful faith to triumph over seemingly impossible odd in their daily lives”.  (http://www.stjudenovena.org/stjude.html)

It is believed that St. Jude was born to a Jewish family.  He was raised in Paneas, in the region of Galilee, the same area where Jesus grew up.  He probably spoke both Greek and Aramaic and was a farmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_Apostle).  St. Jude died a martyr with Simon the Zealot around 65 A.D in Beirut.  After his death, his body from brought from Beirut to Rome and he is buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Saint Jude’s symbols club, axe or palm branch, which represent his martyrdom, or a scroll or book representing the epistle he wrote.  He is also shown in some picture holding a picture of Jesus, which represents his relationship to him as a blood relative.( http://www.carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=content&id=112)