The Church celebrates the feast of these two apostles of Jesus on the same day.

St. Simon was called “the zealous one” because he had so much devotion to the Jewish law. Once he was called by Jesus to be an apostle, he gave his heart and his energy to preaching the Gospel.

With the other apostles, he received the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. He first went to Egypt to spread the good news. Then he went to Persia with the apostle St. Jude.

Both of them gave their lives for God when they were martyred there.

St. Jude is sometimes called Thaddeus, which means “the brave one.”

At the Last Supper, Jesus said: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and show myself to him.”

And St. Jude asked: “Lord, how is it that you are about to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus answered him: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

St. Jude is also called the saint of “desperate or impossible cases.” People pray to him when things seem hopeless. Often God answers their prayers through the intercession of this beloved apostle.