Sts. Simon and Jude

They both were among the twelve Apostles lived with Jesus. They occupied the 10th and 11th place in the list of twelve apostles of Jesus. In Persia they converted the king and about sixty thousand persons to Christianity. The king of Persia respected them more for the reason that they over powered two ferocious tigers that were terrorizing the public. They both preached Gospel in Mesopotamia and Persia.

St. Simon is mentioned in all the Gospels. In one of the Gospels he is called as "the Zealot". Zealots were a group of Jews with extreme Jewish nationalism. He is depicted in art with a saw, by which he was martyred. He preached in Egypt, Spain and Libya. He is the patron saint of couriers, saw men, sawyers and tanners.

St. Jude was a legal cousin of Jesus Christ. He was the nephew of St. Joseph through his father Alpheus. Jude is the name we see in the Gospel of Luke and in the Acts, which is also written by Luke. But as per the Gospels of Mathew and Mark, his name is mentioned as Thaddeus. He was the apostle who asked Jesus at the last supper that why He (Jesus) chose to reveal Himself to the disciples only. The meaning of the word Thaddeus is "strong man". He was the brother of James. He is the author of a short epistle in the New Testament. He was killed in Armenia. He is the patron saint of hospital workers and hospitals. He is also called as the saint of last resort. Hence he may be prayed in desperate situations, for forgotten causes, to achieve impossible causes and for lost causes.