Pray with St. Jude
St. Jude is the Patron Saint of Hope and one of Jesus’ twelve Apostles. He preached the Gospel with great passion, often in the most difficult circumstances
Through his powerful intercession to Jesus on our behalf, St. Jude takes our petitions into his care. He welcomes our prayers of gratitude to God, our petitions for strength and help, and he offers hope for every intention.
The St. Jude League provides the path for petitions of need and gratitude to be delivered directly to the altar of St. Jude at the National Shrine each week. Membership is not based on any dues or any subscription. It is based only on you connecting your petitions to St. Jude through us.
The Claretians are grateful for the opportunity to invite you to share or discover the devotion to St. Jude and to offer the many prayer and devotional materials available on our website:
- Send a prayer or petition
- Pray one of our many Prayers to St. Jude
- Light a Virtual Vigil Light at the Shrine
- Request a Mass for a loved one or a friend
- Learn and grow in your faith by visiting our Catholic resource library
- Watch our St. Jude Prayer Videos and share them with family and friends
- Make a Gift in support of our ministries of hope at the National Shrine of St. Jude
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Join our community of devotion at the National Shrine of St. Jude
Who is St. Jude?
St. Jude is the Patron Saint of Hope and impossible causes and one of Jesus’ original twelve Apostles.
He preached the Gospel with great passion, often in the most difficult circumstances. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he made profound differences in people's lives as he offered them the Word of God. The Gospel tells us that St. Jude was a brother of St. James the Less, also one of the Apostles. They are described in the Gospel of Matthew as the "brethren" of Jesus, probably cousins. St. Jude is often confused with Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.
History of the Shrine
Claretian Fr. James Tort founded the National Shrine of St. Jude in 1929 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago. Fr. Tort was pastor of the parish and had been sent there by the Claretians to organize the construction of the church for a parish in need of hope and support. Many of his parishioners were dependent on work in the nearby steel mills, which were subject to national economic conditions of the 1920s.
Fr. Tort had a strong devotion to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hope and hopeless or difficult causes, who was relatively unknown to the general Catholic population at that time.
Celebrate a Novena
The nine days of novena prayer signify the nine days the twelve Apostles prayed together between Jesus’ Ascension and Pentecost, when they were filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. St. Jude was one of the Apostles and a cousin of Jesus.
The St. Jude League offers a simple way to pray the Solemn Novena to St. Jude five times each year. Sign up to receive nine days of St. Jude Novena prayer, sent to your email address.
St. Jude promises to deliver our prayers to God, and in turn to give us comfort and hope as we wait to see how life will unfold.