Relic of Apostle expected to draw capacity crowds at North Jersey churches

A Catholic relic hailing from Rome is expected to draw capacity crowds in North Jersey churches this month.

Purported to be part of an arm bone from St. Jude Thaddeus, one of the Catholic faith's 12 apostles, the relic will make its first appearance in Bergen County on Thursday. Until recently, the relic had been housed in Rome at the Church of San Salvatore in Lauro.

The relic, according to its caretaker, Father Carlos Martins, has never been stateside before. Its identical twin has.

Since 1949, a similar relic also purported to be part of the same forearm has been in the care of Chicago’s St. Pius V Church. That alleged forearm bone is claimed by church officials to have come from members of the Dominican sect in Armenia, who later brought it to Turin, Italy and eventually had it encased in a silver reliquary.

Catholic tradition says St. Jude was martyred and buried in Beirut. However, his remains were said to have been later moved to Rome. Today, most of his body allegedly rests in a tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica. It was there that the alleged arm now encased in wood and soon coming to parishes within the Archdiocese of Newark was taken.

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St. Jude was Jesus Christ’s first cousin, according to Catholic tradition. Following Christ’s crucifixion, Jude preached the gospel throughout Mesopotamia until his martyrdom circa 65 A.D. Known as the patron saint of hopeless causes, he is the namesake for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

“St. Jude is special to many Catholics because he’s the Apostle of the Impossible,” said Father Joe Mancini, pastor of St. Stephen’s Church in Kearny, which hosts the relic on Dec. 11. "People turn to him when they most need help."

The St. Jude relic now on tour first comes to North Jersey on Thursday with a stop at Church of the Assumption on Jefferson Avenue in Emerson. The relic tour's next stop is St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell on Friday. Over the next five days it goes to Westfield, Elmwood Park, Kearny, Old Bridge, Piscataway and Kendall Park.

This New Jersey leg of the tour that started this September and ends in May wraps up with stops at St. Francis de Sales Church in Vernon on Dec. 16 and Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Verona on Dec. 18. Most are expected to start the public veneration of the relic at 1 or 2 p.m.

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Martins is a custos reliquiarum, an ecclesiastically appointed curator of relics. He is also the leader of Treasures of the Church, a Michigan-based ministry that helps connect the public with Catholic relics, and an exorcist who hosts a podcast called "The Exorcist Files."

Martins, who is taking the relic on a 100-stop tour, said his goal is to assist a "nation still reeling from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic." The Catholic tradition of venerating a saint's relics is a way of asking for their intercession, he added.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Relic of St. Jude the apostle coming to NJ churches