2 July 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Apostle Jude

One 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). SL 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.

Catholic Calendar

St. Bernardino Realino

St. Bernardino Realino was born into a noble family of Capri, Italy in 1530. After receiving a thorough and devout Christian education at the hands of his mother, he went on to study medicine at the University of Bologna, but after three years he switched to law and received his doctorate in 1563. Word of his learning, dedication, and legal brilliance spread rapidly, and in 1554 he was summoned to Naples to assume the position of auditor and lieutenant general. Shortly afterward, his exemplary young man came to the realisation that he had a religious vocation and, aided by our Lady’s appearance to him joined the Society of Jesus, being ordained in 1567. For three years he laboured unstintingly at Naples, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the service of the poor and the youth, and then he was sent to Lecce where he remained for the last forty-two years of his life. So greatly was this saint loved and appreciated by his people that in 1616, as he lay on his deathbed the city’s magistrates formally requested that he should take the city under his protection. Unable to speak, St. Bernardino bowed his head. He died with the names of Jesus and Mary on his lips.