Holy Apostle Jude, the Brother of the Lord

Jude is named in the Gospels among the brothers of Jesus, and the New Testament letter that bears his name begins "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James." The Church's calendar remembers him as an apostle and brother of the Lord. According to the historian Nicephorus, whom the old Lives follow, he preached in Judea, Galilee, Samaria, Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, and in Edessa. The Life says that he was killed by pagan priests in the region of Ararat, crucified and pierced with arrows. Early writers also tell that two of his grandsons were brought before the emperor Domitian and released.