SAINTS

Simon and Jude

Posted

Feast Day: OCTOBER 28

Listed among the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament, Simon is “the Canaanite” to Matthew and Mark and “the Zealot” to Luke; Jude is “Thaddeus” to Matthew and Mark, “Judas of James” to Luke, and “Judas, not Iscariot” to John. After Pentecost, they disappear. However, according to Eastern tradition, Simon died peacefully in Edessa, while Western tradition has him evangelizing in Egypt, then teaming up with Jude, who had been in Mesopotamia, on a mission to Persia, where they were martyred on the same day. Simon is the patron saint of tanners and lumberjacks; Jude is the patron of desperate causes, possibly because early Christians would pray to him, with a name evoking Judas Iscariot, only when all else failed.