Feast day · October 28

St. Jude

Nobody prayed to him for centuries because of his name.

Jude was one of the twelve apostles. He asks Jesus one question at the Last Supper and then essentially disappears from the record.

Here is why he ended up patron of lost causes. His name in Greek is Judas. It is the same name as the one who betrayed Jesus, and for hundreds of years people were so uneasy about saying it that they avoided asking him for anything at all.

Which meant, the tradition goes, that he had time. So he became the one you go to when it is genuinely hopeless and everyone else is busy. The saint nobody wanted became the saint for situations nobody wants.

St. Jude facts for kids

Also called Thaddeus, partly to avoid confusion with Judas Iscariot
He asks exactly one recorded question in the Gospels, at the Last Supper
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is named for him
He's usually painted with a flame over his head, from Pentecost

Feast day: October 28 · Patron of hopeless and desperate cases

St. Jude, when it looks hopeless, stay with me.