For over 60 years, the Canadian Dominican Friars are busy spreading the devotion to the Apostle Saint Jude. During the Fifties, this ministry, which had humble beginnings on Laval Street, in Montreal, moved to the former St. Agnes Irish church, on Saint Denis Street. The Dominicans changed the church into a Shrine and started spreading the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and to Saint Jude.

In 2007, because of a decrease in the number of religious personnel available for the ministry, the Dominicans had no other choice but to sell the buildings on Saint Denis Street. The offices of the Saint Jude Apostolic Works were moved to their convent of Saint-Albert-le-Grand, located at 2715 Côte-Saint-Catherine Road, facing the University of Montreal. A «Saint Jude Oratory» was set up so that people can continue offering their prayers to God, through the intercession of Saint Jude.

Who is Saint Jude ?

According to the evangelists Matthew and Mark, Yehudah, or Jude, brother of James the Minor, was a close relative and friend of Jesus, with whom he lived during his three years of ministry. Jude was one of the twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus among his disciples. Not wanting to confuse him with another Yehudah, Judas Iscariot, Matthew and Mark named him Judas Thaddeus. Thaddeus means abundant, gentle, merciful, kind in Syriac, and courageous in Aramaic.

After the Pentecost, he went preaching in Palestine, Arabia, Armenia, Mesopotamia and, along with the Apostle Simon, he evangelised Persia, between 64 and 69 AD, where they were both clubbed to death. Saint Jude is always represented holding a club in his hand, many times mistaken for a walking stick.