Saint Jude Tattoo Meaning

Hope, perseverance, and the patron of impossible and desperate causes.

Saint Jude is the patron of hopeless and desperate causes — the apostle to whom the faithful turn when every other recourse has failed, the keeper of hope in the most impossible situations, the intercessor of last resort. To carry Saint Jude is to carry hope, perseverance, and the patron of impossible and desperate causes — the apostle distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the saint called upon when all else has been tried, the hope that endures past the point where ordinary hope is exhausted.

Saint Jude holds a special and beloved place as the patron of the hopeless: Jude Thaddaeus — distinguished from Judas Iscariot by the addition of Thaddaeus — is the apostle who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why he revealed himself to the disciples and not to the world; his patronage of impossible causes emerged from his association with extreme need. Jude was one of the twelve apostles, called Thaddaeus to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot, the betrayer — and partly because of the unfortunate similarity of his name to that of the betrayer, he was long neglected, rarely invoked.

It was perhaps because he was so overlooked — turned to only as a last resort, when no other help seemed available — that Jude became the patron of desperate and impossible causes. Associated with extreme need and last resorts, he became the saint to whom the faithful turn when their situation is most desperate, when all other hope seems gone. His patronage grew precisely from this association with extreme need: the saint of the hopeless cause, invoked when everything else has failed. He remains one of the most beloved saints among those facing desperate situations, the patron of impossible and hopeless causes. The Catholic Saint Jude is thus the apostle of impossible causes — Jude Thaddaeus, the overlooked apostle who became the patron of desperate and impossible causes and extreme need. Jude Thaddaeus is the apostle who became the patron of impossible and desperate causes, invoked in situations of extreme need. The Catholic Saint Jude is the apostle of impossible causes — Jude Thaddaeus, distinguished from Judas Iscariot by the addition of Thaddaeus, is the apostle who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why he revealed himself to the disciples and not to the world, his patronage of impossible causes emerging from his association with extreme need; one of the twelve apostles, called Thaddaeus to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot the betrayer, and partly because of the unfortunate similarity of his name to the betrayer's long neglected and rarely invoked — perhaps because he was so overlooked, turned to only as a last resort when no other help seemed available, becoming the patron of desperate and impossible causes, associated with extreme need and last resorts, the saint to whom the faithful turn when their situation is most desperate and all other hope seems gone, his patronage growing precisely from this association with extreme need, the saint of the hopeless cause invoked when everything else has failed.

Saint Jude's association with impossible causes developed partly because his name's similarity to Judas Iscariot made people reluctant to invoke him — he received fewer prayers than other apostles and therefore had more capacity to attend to the most desperate cases. This is the folk theology behind the patronage: the saint who was overlooked because of an unfortunate name became the saint who answered the prayers no one else would take. The Shrine of Saint Jude in Chicago (established 1929 CE, during the Great Depression) became one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in America — the timing was not accidental. The novena to Saint Jude is among the most widely published Catholic prayers; it consistently appears in classified ad sections of newspapers as a paid thanksgiving from those whose impossible causes were resolved.

Saint Jude across cultures

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