Today, October 28, is the feast of Saint Jude and Saint Simon.
St. Jude, also known as Thaddeus, was a brother of St. James the Lesser, and a relative of Jesus. According to the ancient writers, Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Lybia. Eusebius wrote that he returned to Jerusalem in the year 62 and assisted at the election of his brother, St. Simeon, as Bishop of Jerusalem.
Jude was an author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, in particular the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics.
He was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection.
He was clubbed to death, then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia. His relics are at Saint Peter’s in Rome, at Rheims, and at Toulouse, France.
Little is known about the post-Pentecost life of St. Simon, who had been called a Zealot. He is thought to have preached in Egypt and then have joined St. Jude in Persia. It is said that he was martyred by being cut in half with a saw. However, in the 4th-century, St. Basil the Great says he died in Edessa, peacefully.