Holy Apostle Jude, Brother of the Lord

The Orthodox tradition identifies this Jude as one of the 'brothers of the Lord' — in the usual Eastern understanding, a son of Joseph the Betrothed from before his espousal to the Virgin — and brother of James of Jerusalem, exactly as the opening of the Epistle of Jude presents its author: 'Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.' That short, fiery letter against corrupters of the faith is his lasting monument. In the lists of the Twelve he is usually matched with the apostle called Thaddeus or Lebbaeus, 'Judas not Iscariot,' who at the Last Supper asked how Christ would show himself to his own and not to the world. Tradition sends his later preaching through Judea, Syria, and Mesopotamia to Persia and Armenia, where he is said to have been martyred — by most accounts hanged on a tree and shot with arrows.