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St. Jude is invoked in desperate or hopeless situations, perhaps because the Letter of Jude in the New Testament encourages the faithful to persevere and protect the faith in an especially difficult situation, in which “certain intruders have stolen in among you” (verse 4).
Devotion to St. Jude in the United States became popular in 1929, when Fr. James Tort, a member of the Claretian Order, founded a shrine in the saint’s honor in Chicago, Illinois. This shrine attracted people struggling with the poverty of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Even today, many people attend communal novenas to St. Jude. Noteworthy sites of devotion to St. Jude are the two parish churches of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena in New York City. Of course, the original Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago continues to attract many people as well.
Probably the best-known story of St. Jude involves the late comedian and entertainer Danny Thomas. During the dark days of the Great Depression, praying for St. Jude’s intercession, he promised God that if he helped him find his way…
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