Find a saint

Type a first name, a need or a date. You get the saint at once, with their feast days in the Western and Orthodox calendars and the sources we checked.

Saint Jude Thaddeus in a red cloak, holding a halberd, painted by El Greco between 1610 and 1614

Saint Jude the Apostle

The apostle also called Thaddeus, whose name the short Letter of Jude carries

Patron of
hopeless causes
Western calendar
28 October, with Saint Simon
Orthodox calendar
19 June (2 July on the old calendar)

Jude is the apostle whom Matthew and Mark call Thaddeus, and the short letter near the end of the New Testament carries his name, urging us to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints". The churches remember him in different ways: the West keeps his day with Simon on 28 October, while the Orthodox keep 19 June and honour him as a son of Joseph by an earlier marriage, and so a brother of the Lord, who preached as far as Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia. Christians in trouble came to call on him as the patron of hopeless causes, and the National Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago still receives their petitions.

Sources

Email me this saint

We'll send this page, with the feast days, so you have it when you need it.

What is a saint’s feast day?

It is the day each year when the Church remembers a saint in its prayers, and for most saints it is the day they died and went home to God. Many saints here have two dates, because the Western and Orthodox Churches keep their own calendars, and some Orthodox churches still count by the old Julian calendar, which runs thirteen days behind ours.

What is a patron saint?

A patron saint is one we ask to pray for us in a particular place, work or need, as many ask Anthony of Padua for help when something is lost, and as Ireland looks to Patrick. A few patronages were declared by a pope, and most grew from long custom. A card says “Patron of” only where a source we checked names one.

A saint I’m looking for is missing. Can you add it?

Yes. Try the name another way first, or the saint’s feast day, because some saints are better known by a title. If they are still not here, send us the name through our contact page, and we will add the saint once we have checked their life and feast days in sources we trust.

Why did you choose these saints and not others?

We began with the saints people search for most, by name, by need and by date, along with the apostles and the saints Orthodox Christians look for. Then we made sure every day of the year has at least one saint. That gives 378 so far, and we keep adding the saints readers ask for.

Every saint here, by feast day