STORY OF THE SAINT OF LOST CAUSES
DAILY MAIL (London)
October 28, 2013 Monday
THE storm was named after St Jude, the Roman Catholic patron saint
of lost causes, whose feast day is today.
Also known as Thaddeus, he was born into a Jewish family in Palestine
and is believed to be a blood relative of Jesus.
He was one of 12 apostles chosen to spread the gospel and he is
believed to have brought Christianity to Armenia.
Details of his life are scarce. But he became associated with lost
causes because of a letter he wrote to the persecuted churches of
the East in about 60AD.
In it, he is believed to have stressed the importance of persisting
in difficult circumstances, as their forefathers had done before them.
But around five years later he was hacked to death in Armenia. He is
often pictured with an axe, symbolising the way he was killed.
His body was later taken to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.