Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/October 28 2007
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Jude (or Judas) is a Christian saint. He is also called Thaddaeus, Thaddeus or Judas Thaddaeus. He should not be confused with Judas Iscariot, another apostle and later the betrayer of Jesus.
In the New Testament the Apostle Jude is referred to by several names. The list given in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 mention a "Judas (the son) of James". The Gospel of John John 14:22 also mentions a disciple called Judas, who during the Last Supper asks Jesus: "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" The passage takes care to distinguish the disciple from the subsequent traitor by the wording "Judas (not Iscariot)" The lists of the Apostles given by in Matthew 10:1-4 and Mark 3:13-19, otherwise identical to the one given by Luke, mention in the same spot a "Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus" and "Thaddaeus" respectively.
Since tradition also numbered a Thaddeus among the Seventy Disciples mentioned in Luke 10:1-24, some scholars have argued that another Thaddaeus was one of the Seventy. However, the identification of the two names has been virtually universal, leading to the name of Judas Thaddaeus. But Eusebius wrote in his Historia Ecclesiastica, I, xiii: "Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, under divine impulse sent Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa, as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of Christ."
Some writers have argued that the multiplicity of names for this apostle is caused by a concern to distinguish this Apostle from Judas Iscariot:
The name by which Luke calls the Apostle, "Jude of James" is ambiguous as to the relationship of Jude to this James. Though such a construction commonly denotes a relationship of father and son, it has been traditionally interpreted as "Jude, brother of James" (See King James Version). Based on this interpretation, Jude and his supposed brother James were identified with Jude, brother of Jesus and James the Just, two of the "brethren of the Lord" mentioned in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55-57.As brother of a James, Jude was also identified with the author of the Epistle of Jude, who calls himself "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (Jude 1:1).
Tradition holds that Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya. He is also said to have visited Beirut and Edessa, though the latter mission is also attributed to Thaddeus, one of the Seventy. He is reported as suffering martyrdom together with Simon the Zealot in Persia. The 14th century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana.
The legend reports that Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in Galilee later rebuilt by the Romans and renamed Caesarea Philippi. In all probability he spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade. According to the legend, Jude was a son of Clopas and his wife Mary, a cousin of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Jude's father, Clopas, was murdered because of his forthright and outspoken devotion to the risen Christ. After Mary's death, miracles were attributed to her intercession.
Attributes: axe, club, boat, oar, medallion
Patronage: Armenia, lost causes, desperate situations, hospitals, St. Petersburg, Florida, the Chicago Police Department, Clube de Regatas do Flamengo from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Prayer:
