St Jude Thaddaeus
The Apostle Simon was called “Simon the Zealot” for his zeal for the Jewish law. Another of the Twelve, the brother of Saint James the Lesser, and therefore related by blood to Jesus as a cousin, Jude (Thaddaeus or Lebbeaus) is the author of the canonical Epistle. According to tradition he and Simon preached the Gospel in Persia and suffered martyrdom together there.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you” (Psalm xliv. 17). Thus does the Church disowned by Israel extol in her chants the apostolic fruitfulness which resides in her till the end of time. Yesterday she was already filled with that loving hope, which is never deceived, that the holy Apostles Simon and Jude would anticipate their solemnity by shedding blessings on her. Such is the condition of her existence on Earth that she can remain here only as long as she continues to give children to our Lord. And therefore in the Mass of the 27th October she makes us read the passage of the Gospel where it is said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, He will take away: and every one that bears fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John xv. 1‒7).
The pruning is painful, as the Epistle of the Vigil points out. In the name of the other branches, honoured like himself with the divine election, the Apostle there recounts the labours, sufferings of every description, persecutions, revilings, denials (1 Corinthians iv. 9‒14), at the cost of which the preacher of the Gospel purchases the right to call sons those whom he has begotten in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians iv. 9‒15). Now, as Saint Paul more than once repeats, especially in the Epistle of the feast, this supernatural veneration of the Saints is nothing else but the mystical reproduction of the Son of God who grows up in each of the elect from infancy to the measure of the perfect man (Galatians iv. 19; Ephesians iv.).
However meagre in details be the history of these glorious Apostles, we learn from their brief legend how amply they contributed to this great work of generating sons of God. Without any repose, and even to the shedding of their blood, they edified the Body of Christ, and the grateful Church thus prays to our Lord today: “O God, who by means of your blessed Apostles Simon and Jude has granted us to come to the knowledge of your name, grant that we may celebrate their eternal glory by making progress in virtues and improve by this celebration.”
Saint Simon is represented in art with a saw, the instrument of his martyrdom. Saint Jude’s square points him out as an architect of the house of God. Saint Paul called himself by this name (1 Corinthians iii. 10) and Saint Jude, by his Catholic Epistle, has also a special right to be reckoned among our Lord’s principal workmen. But our Apostle had another nobility, far surpassing all earthly titles: being nephew, by his father Cleophas or Alpheus, to Saint Joseph, and legal cousin to the Man-God, Jude was one of those called by their compatriots the brethren of the carpenter’s son (Together with James the Less, Apostle and first Bishop of Jerusalem, a certain Joseph less known, and Simeon, second Bishop of Jerusalem, all sons of Cleophas, and of our Lady’s step-sister called in Saint John Mary of Cleophas. Matthew xiii. 65).
We may gather from Saint John’s Gospel another precious detail concerning him. In the admirable discourse at the close of the Last Supper, our Lord said: “He that loves me, will be loved of my Father: and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” Then Jude asked Him: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” And he received from Jesus this reply: “If any one loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my words. And the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me” (John xiv. 21‒24).
Ecclesiastical history informs us that towards the end of his reign, and when the persecution be had raised was at its height, Domitian caused to be brought to him from the East two grandsons of the Apostle Saint Jude. He had some misgivings with regard to these descendants of David’s royal line, for they represented the family of Christ Himself whom His disciples declared to be king of the whole world. Domitian was able to assure himself that these two humble Jews could in no way endanger the Empire, and that if they attributed to Christ sovereign power, it was a power not to be visibly exercised till the end of the world. The simple and courageous language of these two men made such an impression on the emperor that, according to the historian Hegesippus from whom Eusebius borrowed the narrative, he gave orders for the persecution to be suspended.
We have only to add to the following brief notice of our Apostles, that the churches of Saint Peter in Rome and Saint Sernin at Toulouse dispute the honour of possessing the greater part of their holy remains.
“I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain” (John xv. 16). These words were addressed by the Man-God to you, as to all the twelve, as the Church reminded us in her Night Office. And yet, what remains now of the fruit of your labours in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in Persia? Can our Lord and His Church be mistaken in their words or in their appreciations? Certainly not, and proof sufficient is that, above the region of the senses and beyond the domain of history, the power infused into the twelve subsists through all the ages and is active in every supernatural birth that develops the mystical Body of our Lord and increases the Church. We, more truly than Tobias, are the children of saints (Tobias ii. 18). We are no longer strangers, but the family of God, His house built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, united by Jesus the chief corner-stone (Ephesians ii. 19, 20).
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All thanks be to you, O holy Apostles, who in labour and suffering procured us this blessing. Maintain in us the title and the rights of this precious adoption. Great evils surround us. Is there any hope left to the world? The confidence of your devout clients proclaims you, O Jude, the patron of desperate cases. And for you, O Simon, this is surely the time to prove yourself Zealots, full of zeal. Deign, both of you, to hear the Church’s prayers and aid her, with all your apostolic might, to re-animate faith, to rekindle charity and to save the world.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, in the reign of Claudius, St. Cyrilla, virgin, daughter of St. Tryphonia, who was pierced through the throat for the faith of Christ.
In the same city, the holy martyrs Anastasia the Elder, virgin, and Cyril. In the persecution of Valerian under the prefect Probus, Anastasia was bound with chains, buffeted, subjected to fire and scourging, and, as she remained immovable in the confession of Christ, her breasts were cut off, her nails plucked out, her teeth broken, and her hands, feet and head severed from her body. Bedecked with her sufferings as with so many jewels, she went to her spouse. At her request, Cyril gave her some water to drink, and for his reward became a martyr.
At Como, St. Fidelis, martyr, under the emperor Maximian.
At Mayence, St. Ferrutius, martyr.
At Meaux, St. Faro, bishop and confessor.
At Naples, St. Gaudiosus, an African bishop, who came to Campania because of the persecution of the Vandals, and closed peacefully his holy career in a monastery near that city.
At Vercelli, St. Honoratus, bishop.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
