Sts. Simon & Jude

Two of the Twelve who appear in the Gospel lists side by side. Simon "the Zealot" had been a Jewish nationalist before following Christ; Jude — also called Thaddaeus — is the author of the brief epistle that bears his name. Tradition has them preaching together in Mesopotamia and Persia and being martyred there. Jude is invoked as the patron of hopeless causes — when no one else seems to be listening, ask him.

Simon's epithet "the Zealot" suggests a man of fierce conviction, possibly associated with the revolutionary movement that sought to overthrow Roman rule in Palestine. His willingness to follow a Messiah who preached forgiveness rather than uprising marks one of the Gospel's quiet dramas of conversion. Jude, for his part, asks the only question attributed to him at the Last Supper: "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Their shared feast on October 28 unites two apostles about whom Scripture says little but tradition says much. They are said to have been martyred together in Persia — Simon sawn in half, Jude struck down with a club — and their relics eventually found their way to St. Peter's in Rome. Jude's patronage of desperate causes arose because his name's resemblance to Judas Iscariot meant few prayed to him, so he became the saint willing to take the cases no one else would.