19 June / 2 July

The Holy Apostle Jude, the brother of Our Lord

Tne of the Twelve Apostles, he was the son of Joseph and Salome (not the Salome from Bethlehem, but another), and brother to James the Lord's Brother. Joseph the Carpenter had four sons by Salome: James, Hosea, Simon and Jude. Jude is often called 'Jude the brother of James', to note his relationship with his brother (Lk. 6:16; Acts 1:13) . St Jude begins his Epistle: 'Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James'. Although he could call himself the Lord's brother, just as James did, he did not do so. This was out of humility and out of shame, because he did not believe in Christ the Lord at the very beginning. When the aged Joseph desired to give Jesus His portion of the property before his death, just as he was doing for his other children, all of them were against it, including Jude, and only James voluntarily shared out his portion and laid some aside for Jesus. Jude is also called Levi and Thaddeus. There is another Thaddeus, or Jude; one of the Seventy (see August 21st), but this Thaddeus or Jude was one of the Great Apostles. He preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Idumea, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Armenia. At Edessa, the city of Abgar, he continued and developed the preaching of the other Thaddeus. While he was preaching in the region around Ararat, he was seized by the pagans, crucified and shot through with arrows, that he might reign forever in the Kingdom of Christ. Our Holy Father Paissius the Great.

St. Romuald, abbot of Camaldoli, Ravenna (1027)

About the year 970, when Romuald was twenty years old, his father quarrelled with a fellow-citizen of Ravenna in Italy and Romuald was horrified when his father killed his opponent. Just outside Ravenna stands the monastery and church of Sant'Apollinare in Classe and Romuald sought refuge there as a monk. After three years he asked an austere hermit named Marinus if he might join him as a disciple outside Venice. Romuald's early experience in his family made him exceedingly stern against those who pursued their public careers violently. Peter Orseolo, the Doge of Venice, had reached that office by murdering his predecessor. Romuald and Marinus, helped by the Abbc t of Catalonia, persuaded Peter Orseolo to repent and resign the office he had gained with blood. Eventually the emperor appointed Romuald head of the monastery where he had first sought refuge from the evils of the world. But after two years he went to live as a hermit again. He spent his last years founding monasteries and hennitages in Italy, dying on 19 June 1027 at Val di Castro in Piceno.

On the same day: The Holy Martyr Zossima; Our Holy Father John the Solitary; St. John (Maximovitch) II, archbishop of Shanghai & San Francisco (service by decree of the Synod transferred to Saturday nearest to his repose (June 16/29 2002)