The faithful will have the opportunity to venerate a first class relic of St. Jude the Apostle at three parishes in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington during the first week of February.

The relic, a bone from the arm of the saint, will be available for public veneration on the following dates and locations:

Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Shrine of St. Jude Catholic Church, 12701 Veirs Mill Road, Rockville, Maryland. A Mass will be celebrated in St. Jude’s honor at 1 p.m. This will be followed by public veneration of the relic until 10 p.m. For more information, call (301) 946-8200.

Monday, Feb. 5 at St. John Neumann Church, 9000 Warfield Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland. Public veneration of the relic begins at 1 p.m. A Mass will be celebrated in St. Jude’s honor at 7 p.m., and veneration will continue until 10 p.m. For more information, call (301) 977-5492.

Tuesday, Feb. 6 at St. John Francis Regis Church, 43927 St. Johns Road, Hollywood, Maryland. Public veneration of the relic begins at 1 p.m. A Mass will be celebrated in St. Jude’s honor at 7 p.m., and veneration will continue until 10 p.m. For more information, call (301) 373-2281.

St. Jude was the son of Mary of Clopas (Cleophas), one of the three Marys who stood by Jesus during His Crucifixion. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jude is referred to as “the brother of Jesus,” but is believed be his cousin of Jesus. St. Jude was martyred and buried in Beirut. Centuries later, his body was transferred to Rome. He is buried in at St. Peter’s Basilica in a tomb also holding the remains of the St. Simon.

Several centuries ago, his arm was removed and placed in a wooden reliquary carved in the shape of a n arm, imparting a blessing. They are still enclosed in the same reliquary.

St. Jude is invoked as the patron saint of hopeless or impossible cases. According to tradition, he became associated with difficult cases because he was sometimes confused with Judas Iscariot, and the faithful were hesitant to seek his intercession and only invoked him when truly desperate.

The three archdiocesan parishes are part of an eight-month, 100-city nationwide tour of the relic. The arm of the saint was separated from the REST of his remains several centuries ago and placed in a simple wooden reliquary carved in the shape of an upright arm in the gesture of imparting a blessing. 

Relics are physical objects that have a direct association with the saints or with Jesus.  They are sorted into three classes: first class relics are the body or fragments of the body of a saint, such as pieces of bone or flesh; second class relics are something that a saint personally owned, such as a rosary or a garment; third class relics are items that a saint touched or that have been touched to a first or second class relic.

The Catholic Church teaches that a relic – such as the arm of St. Jude – is offered to the faithful for veneration, but neither the relic nor the saint is worshipped. The Church teaches that relics are venerated in recognition of the fact that God has worked through the saint.

The Council of Trent declared that “the sacred bodies of the holy martyrs and of the other saints … should also be venerated by the faithful. Through them, many benefits are granted to men by God.”

For more information on the relics tour, visit https://apostleoftheimpossible.com/