Saints Simon and Jude
Apostles, Simon called the Zealot and Jude called Thaddaeus
Saints Simon and Jude Thaddaeus belonged to the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. In the lists of the Twelve their names always stand side by side, and the Church honors them together: the feast of both falls on October 28. The New Testament says very little about them, so we do not know the years of their lives.
The evangelists Matthew and Mark call Simon the Cananaean, while Luke calls him the Zealot, that is, the zealous one. Both names mean the same thing, because they derive from a Hebrew word for ardent zeal. Pope Benedict XVI explained that even if Simon did not belong to the party of the Zealots, he was most likely marked by a passionate attachment to God, to his people, and to the Law. Among the Twelve he stood alongside Matthew the tax collector, which shows that Jesus called his disciples from very different backgrounds.
Tradition gives Jude a double name, because Matthew and Mark call him Thaddaeus, while Luke calls him Judas, the son of James. He should not be confused with Judas Iscariot. The Gospel according to John preserves a question he put to Jesus at the Last Supper: why the Lord intends to manifest himself to the disciples and not to the world. He heard in reply that whoever loves Jesus will keep his word, and the Father and the Son will come to him and make their home with him.
Tradition attributes to Jude Thaddaeus one of the letters of the New Testament, the short Letter of Jude. In it the author warns Christians against people who abuse God’s grace and bring division into the Church, and at the same time urges them to build their lives on faith, to pray in the Holy Spirit, and to remain in the love of God.
Only tradition speaks of what became of the two apostles afterward. According to it, Simon is said to have preached the Gospel in Egypt and Jude Thaddaeus in Mesopotamia; later they set out together for Persia and there suffered martyrdom. Their relics are venerated in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The faithful ask Jude Thaddaeus for his intercession especially in difficult cases and in those that seem humanly hopeless.
Simon and Jude Thaddaeus were never beatified or canonized in today’s sense, because the Church has venerated them as saints since antiquity. The day of their shared feast was already recorded in the old Hieronymian Martyrology. The Roman Canon, that is, Eucharistic Prayer I, names them together among the apostles and martyrs.