Life of St. Jude Thaddeus, "Helper in Despaired of Cases"

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is ever new and Vigorous simply because she is what she is, the great Mother of God. Nor will piety towards St. Joseph ever wither away and die being insepar ably connected with the name of Jesus as his foster-father. The name of jude thaddeus, once it is known, should appeal to us for a similar reason, he also being closely allied to Our Blessed Lord by a blood relationship. This singular privilege came to him through St. Anne and St. Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Being a grand nephew of these two holy souls he is at once a nephew of Joseph and Mary which of course places him in the relationship of cousin to Our Lord Himself. Proximity to Christ is always a valuable asset, yea even an indis pensable one, to a saint, but when it is the nearness of actual relationship to the Saviour of mankind, it becomes apowerful incentive in making man try all the more to endear himself to that saint. St. Jude thaddeus owed his incep tion into the world to Cleophas and Mary of Cleophas, his parents. His mother, Mary of Cleophas, brought him up in a youthhood of piety and innocence, both of which were fostered and augmented by the ever outstanding example of Christ. This example was vouchsafed him even in his boyhood years, for as cousin of the Saviour he must have frequently been in an intimate association with the Saviour of the world. What events made up the life of jude thaddeus up to the time of the call to apostleship are not known, but this much 13 certain, when the divine invitation was extended he not only embraced it, but never for a moment allowed his zeal to abate as an apostle. It was zeal and zeal alone which eventually brought to him the much coveted prize of martyrdom. He was not only an Apostle, but also one of the sacred writers. His work is known as The Epistle of st. Jude. Although only a very brief work of twenty verses, the shortest writing of the New Testament, it is remarkable for the strength and grande