Summary
The patron saint of lost causes in the forty-fourth essay of Reflections on Exile and Other Essays: Jude the Hidden, overshadowed by Judas Iscariot and by the larger apostles, symbolizing all those who have failed in distinction, whose promise has been unrealized and whose causes have not succeeded (Reflections on Exile and Other Essays, PDF p.493).
Details
- During the early years of the Christian era Jude or Judas was regularly described as Judas (frater) Jacobi, Judas the brother of James; along with John the Evangelist the three brothers were disciples of Jesus, although Jude had the misfortune of being confused with Judas Iscariot and was therefore known as Jude the Hidden (PDF p.493).
- He and Saint Simon preached the gospel together in Mesopotamia and were martyred there (PDF p.493).
- A book on modern pilgrimage records that after Peter and James — Santiago — Jude “ranks third among the apostles as a pilgrimage saint with at least nine European shrines to his credit. Saint Jude also has at least five shrines in North America. The cult of this apostle, who replaced Judas Iscariot among the original group, developed slowly and became important only in the twentieth century” (Nolan, 137, quoted PDF p.493).
- Surrounded by Peter the Rock, John the mystic and theologian and James the patron saint of pilgrims and killer of Moors (Santiago Matamoros), Jude validates the Christian vision of charity and humility — there is a place for everyone, not just for those who have made it; yet he provides a last resort in a religion whose central figure is supposed to be the last resort (PDF p.493).
- Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is a savage attack on any such palliative: even St. Jude is of no value whatever to Jude Fawley, his modern namesake (PDF p.494-495).