Jude

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Martyrdom of Jude

June (1st century C.E.), also known as St. Judas or Jude Thaddeus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, who is sometimes confused with Jude, the brother of Jesus, the probable author of the Epistle of Jude.Jude the apostle is widely viewed as a saint by different branches of Christianity. For example, the Armenian Apostolic Church honours him along with Saint Bartholomew. Correspondingly, Roman Catholics see him as the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes.He should not be confused with Judas Iscariot, another apostle and later the betrayer of Jesus. Their name is a Greek variant of Judah and was common among Jews at the time.St. 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. St. 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.Tradition holds that Saint 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 of Edessa, one of the Seventy. He is reported as suffering martyrdom together with Simon the Zealot in Persia. The fourteenth-century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana.

Though Saint Gregory the Illuminator is credited as the "Apostle to the Armenians," when he baptised King Tiridates III of Armenia in 301 C.E., converting the Armenians, the Apostles Jude and Bartholomew are traditionally believed to have been the first to bring Christianity to Armenia, and are therefore venerated as the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Linked to this tradition is the Thaddeus Monastery.

According to the Armenian tradition, Saint Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 C.E. in Beirut, Lebanon together with the apostle Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. Their acts and martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, bishop of Babylon, and said to have been translated into Latin by his disciple Tropaeus Africanus, according to the Golden Legend account of the saints. Saints Simon and Jude are venerated together in the Roman Catholic Church on October 28.

Sometime after his death, Saint Jude's body was brought from Beirut, Lebanon to Rome and placed in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica which is visited by many devotees. According to popular tradition, the remains of St. Jude were preserved in a monastery on an island in the northern part of Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan at least until mid-fifteenth century.

(Courtesy: New World Encyclopedia)