Sunday, December 5, 2010

Thank You, St. Jude; Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes


A good, substantial read about St. Jude, author Robert A. Orsi wrote Thank You, St. Jude; Women's Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes in 1996.

From Yale University Press: "St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless causes, is the most popular saint of the American Catholic laity, particularly among women. This fascinating book describes how the cult of St. Jude originated in 1929, traces the rise in Jude's popularity over the next decades, and investigates the circumstances that led so many Catholic women to feel hopeless and to turn to St. Jude for help. Robert A. Orsi tells us that the women who were drawn to St. Jude—daughters and granddaughters of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Ireland—were the first generations of Catholic women to make lives for themselves outside of their ethnic enclaves. Orsi explores the ambitions and dilemmas of these women as they dealt with the pressures of the Depression and the Second World War, made modern marriages for themselves, entered the workplace, took care of relatives in their old neighborhoods, and raised children in circumstances very different from those of their mothers and grandmothers. Drawing on testimonies written in the periodicals devoted to St. Jude and on interviews with women who felt their lives were changed by St. Jude's intervention, Orsi shows how devotion to St. Jude enabled these women to negotiate their way amid the conflicting expectations of their two cultures—American and Catholic."

A substantial amount of Mr. Orsi's book currently is available to read on Google Book Search.

8 comments:

  1. thank you St Jude
    MS

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  2. AnonymousMay 02, 2011

    Thank you God for answering my prayer; thank you St. Jude for interceding on my behalf. I will encourage devotion to you always!

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  3. Thank you St. Jude for your intercession on my behalf and that of my family. You have helped me navigate through a very difficult year. I am so grateful and will continue to pray the novena.

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  4. AnonymousMay 30, 2012

    Thank you St Jude for prayers received and granted. Thank you, humble and glorious Apostle. Pray for us.

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  5. St.jude thank you so much for interceding for me, you never fail to help me. Please continue to pray for me that my prayers will be granted. Lord, i thank you for all the blessing that came into my life, thank you for hearing me. Mama mary please continue to pray for me. Amen :)

    -ks

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  6. The good Apostle, St. Jude Thaddeus, became gloriously renown as the most powerful Patron Saint of Desperate Cases because he was eclipsed for centuries in history. Sadly, for ages he was forgotten despite being a faithful servant and friend of Jesus. God praised and rewarded St. Jude with an uncanny power to help the desperate, to assist those during impossible situations. The evidence of this is the thousands of private adds, which newspapers and publications have printed daily: “Thank you Saint Jude!”

    St. Jude, thanks for your help throughout my life. You have assisted me with both trivial and demonstrative prayers. I truly believed you have even performed miracles for me.

    Thank you, St. Jude, for your immediate assistance and intercession- I am in complete awe over your rapid response and aide and I am humbled by your exactness and timeliness to meet my needs. You have never failed me during times of trial and tribulation, and words cannot articulate how grateful I am.

    Thank you God for answering my prayer; thank you St. Jude for interceding on my behalf. I will encourage devotion to you always.

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  7. Thank you, St. jude for prayers answered.

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  8. St. Jude, thank you for your intercession. Never have you failed me, and through taxing times you continue to amaze me. Words cannot articulate my gratitude for your incessant support. Most recently, I truly appreciate your help after surgery- the healing process has been remarkable and rapid! Please continue to help me during the recovery process, healing properly each day with no complications.

    Thank you God for answering my prayer; thank you St. Jude for interceding on my behalf. I will encourage devotion to you always.

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