October 28
The saints and feasts remembered on October 28, each with a short life, a Bible passage and a prayer.
Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Two little-known apostles who followed Jesus and carried his message abroad
Simon and Jude were two of the twelve apostles Jesus chose in Galilee in the first century. The Gospels say very little about either. Simon is called “the Zealot” or “the Cananaean,” which may mean he had once been passionate for Israel’s freedom, or simply zealous for God’s law. Jude, named “Judas son of James” by Luke, is probably the man Matthew and Mark call Thaddaeus, which is why he is often known as Jude Thaddeus.
John’s Gospel keeps one moment of Jude’s: at the Last Supper he asked Jesus why he would show himself to the disciples and not to the whole world. Jesus answered that he and the Father would make their home with anyone who loves him. After Pentecost the record goes quiet. A Western tradition says the two preached together in Persia and died there as martyrs; other traditions send them to different lands.
Christians remember them as faithful followers whose names were kept even though their stories were mostly lost.
Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:22–23 · BSB
A prayer
Lord God, you called Simon and Jude to follow your Son and to carry his good news to others, though the world has forgotten most of what they did. Make our love for Jesus real and faithful, so that he may make his home in us, and help us serve you gladly when no one is watching. Amen.
The lives are written with AI help from public-domain histories and checked before publishing; the prayers are ours. Bible quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), in the public domain. How we write.