LIVES OF THE SAINTS
Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?
John 14:22
St. Jude
Thaddaeus, Brother of James the Brother of God
Jude is known in the Gospels by several names, which has helped keep him distinct from the one name no one wished to share. He is called Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus as well as Jude, and the Church is always careful to note that he is not Judas Iscariot the betrayer but, as John's Gospel itself says, Judas, not Iscariot. Orthodox tradition knows him as a kinsman of the Lord and the brother of the Apostle James, and counts him the author of the short, urgent letter of Jude near the end of the New Testament, a warning to the early Church against those who would corrupt it from within.
He has a single recorded saying in the Gospels, and it is a telling one. At the Last Supper, as Christ speaks of revealing Himself to those who love Him, Jude asks, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? It is the question of a man already mindful of all who are not yet in the room, and the rest of his life answered it. After Pentecost tradition carries him through Mesopotamia, Persia, and Armenia, where, with the Apostle Bartholomew, he is honored as a founder of the Armenian Church. He was martyred for the Gospel in the eastern lands, in some accounts pierced with arrows.
In the icon he is shown as a bearded man holding a scroll. He is the kinsman of the Lord, the namesake who bore the name of Judas without its shame, the apostle who from his single recorded question onward kept the world outside the room in view.
Feast Day of
St. Jude
June 19
Apolytikion of
St. Jude
Tone 1
We know thee as a kinsman of Christ and we laud thee with sacred hymns and songs as a most steadfast Martyr who trampled on error and who courageously kept the Faith. As we celebrate today thy holy remembrance, we receive forgiveness of our sins and transgressions, O Jude, through thy holy prayers.
Kontakion of
St. Jude