The Novena to St. Jude
Also known as St. Jude Novena ยท Novena to Saint Jude Thaddeus
The Novena to St. Jude is a nine-day devotion asking the intercession of Jude Thaddeus, the apostle invoked in desperate situations. The novena in its familiar modern form dates to 1929 and its text has no verifiable public-domain provenance, so this page gives its history and structure and points to an authorized text rather than reproducing it.
Where this devotion comes from
Jude Thaddeus was one of the twelve apostles, distinguished in the gospels from Judas Iscariot. He is traditionally identified as the author of the Epistle of Jude, and his feast is kept on October 28, shared with the apostle Simon. The modern novena devotion is much later than the apostle himself: it was established in 1929 by the Claretian Missionaries, when Father James Tort held the first devotional services to Saint Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in southeast Chicago. The National Shrine of Saint Jude was founded there in the same year and became the center from which the devotion spread across the United States.
What the nine days concern
The devotion is built around Jude's traditional patronage of desperate situations and causes thought beyond hope. Rather than assigning a different subject to each of the nine days as some novenas do, the St. Jude novena is generally prayed with the same prayers repeated on each of the nine days, with the person praying holding a particular intention throughout. Published arrangements vary: some add a scripture reading or a short reflection for each day, and others do not. This variation between sources is one reason no single form of the novena can be treated as the traditional one.
History
Devotion to Saint Jude was slow to develop in the Western Church, in part because of the similarity of his name to that of Judas Iscariot, which is thought to have discouraged invocation of him for centuries. The tradition that he is a patron of hopeless causes is sometimes explained by that same neglect: those who turned to him did so when they had exhausted other recourse.
The modern devotion is precisely datable. In 1929 the Claretian Missionaries, under Father James Tort, began devotional services to Saint Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago, and the National Shrine of Saint Jude was established there. The devotion grew rapidly through the Depression years and spread widely in the United States.
The prayer beginning 'Most holy apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus' is the wording most commonly encountered. It is a twentieth-century composition associated with the Chicago devotion, and we have not been able to establish that it is in the public domain, which is why it is not reproduced here.
How it is prayed
Prayed on nine consecutive days, most commonly in the nine days leading up to the feast of Saint Jude on October 28. In many parishes and shrines the devotion is also kept as a weekly novena rather than nine consecutive days, with services held on the same weekday for nine successive weeks. The person praying holds a particular intention throughout the nine days, usually a situation that seems beyond ordinary remedy, which is the context the devotion has always been associated with.
We do not reproduce the prayers of this devotion. They are available in full from the source below.
Read the Novena to St. Jude at EWTNCommon questions
Why is St. Jude the patron of hopeless causes?
When is the St. Jude novena prayed?
Why does this page not include the text of the novena?
Devotion established 1929 by the Claretian Missionaries under Father James Tort at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Chicago, where the National Shrine of Saint Jude was founded. The commonly encountered prayer text is a twentieth-century composition of unverified copyright status and is not reproduced on this page.