Lives Of The Saints
October 28
Ss. Simon and Jude
The feast of Simon and Jude is presented with honest restraint where later details are uncertain. Simon and Jude are great not because we can reconstruct every later detail, but because they were chosen apostles of Christ.
Saints Simon and Jude, apostle pair image from the Metropolitan Museum
Brief life
Simon and Jude are remembered by preserving what can really be said and refusing to pretend to more, which is exactly what an apostle feast requires. Simon the Zealot and Jude Thaddeus are both apostles of the Lord, and that dignity is the true center of the feast. After Pentecost, however, the later traditions become conflicting and uncertain.
The account therefore keeps close to Scripture, to Jude's canonical epistle, and to the broad Western tradition that joins their missionary labor and martyrdom in Persia without claiming every later detail as if it were fully reconcilable. The feast gains from that restraint. Simon and Jude remain great not because later legend can be reconstructed cleanly, but because Christ chose them and sent them.
Historical note
is especially cautious here: he keeps the apostles’ dignity central, but says very plainly that the later traditions about their post-Pentecost missions cannot be fully reconciled.
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