Have you tried everything, and your cause still hasn’t moved? Nine days, with everything prayed in full: the Novena Prayer as it is prayed at the shrines of Saint Jude, St. Jude, in Chicago and São Paulo, a prayer of its own each of the nine days, a true episode from the apostle’s life, and the Way of the Day. A Prayer Booklet at the front gathers everything that repeats — you pray that part once, then go straight to each day’s page.
A rite, not a read: the same Novena Prayer prayed for nearly a century at the shrines of St. Jude, repeated and reinforced across nine days.
Saint Jude Thaddeus is the apostle Scripture barely mentions — one of the Twelve, "forgotten" for nineteen centuries because his name, sounding too close to the betrayer’s, almost no one dared invoke. The modern devotion was born in 1929, in a jobless Chicago parish, around an apostle then nearly forgotten; it reached São Paulo in 1940 and Mexico City in 1955, where crowds still fill shrines every 28th of the month today. That is why he is now the saint people turn to when nothing else works: the patron of difficult and desperate cases.
The novena doesn’t have nine different texts: it has one rite, repeated nine times. The Novena Prayer, the acclamations, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be repeat every day — so they are gathered, in full, in a detachable Prayer Booklet at the front of the book, so you pray that part once and then go straight to each day’s page. What changes day to day is that day’s own prayer — always real and documented, never composed by us — and a meditation on an episode from the apostle’s life or the devotion he inspired.
The two traditional litanies to St. Jude — the one from the São Paulo shrine and the one most widespread in English — appear on different days, each printed in full, exactly as it is prayed. The two differ from each other on some points, and neither is presented as "official": there is no single official novena to Saint Jude Thaddeus, and the book states where each prayer comes from, in its first pages.
Each of the nine days brings a prayer of its own, a true episode from the apostle’s life or from the devotion he inspired, and the Way of the Day: three steps for your own notebook — Perceive, Decide, Live. Start Day 1 today: nine days toward the Feast of St. Jude, on October 28.
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”
The apostle’s own letter — the shortest in the New Testament — closes with this doxology, and it is with it that the novena closes on the ninth day. Between the first and last day, each day’s own prayer comes from a real, documented source: none was composed by us. Where tradition is not unanimous — such as the exact identity of "Jude, brother of James" — the book says so plainly, instead of inventing a certainty the sources do not have.
Not a book to skim: a real novena, with everything prayed in full, one day at a time.
The Novena Prayer, the acclamations, the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be — gathered in a Prayer Booklet at the front, and each of the nine days’ own prayer, always complete.
Each day brings a true episode: from 1929 Chicago to 1940 São Paulo and 1955 Mexico City — the story of the devotion that turned the forgotten apostle into the saint most invoked for impossible causes.
The São Paulo shrine litany and the one most widespread in English, each printed in full — the book shows where every prayer comes from, without presenting any as "official" where it isn’t.
A guided-meditation video for each day and the complete book, with a QR code — made to be printed, written in, and prayed in a group.
“Novena to Saint Jude Thaddeus” — in Kindle, paperback and hardcover editions.
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The patron of impossible and desperate causes: here's a curated Amazon search for a Saint Jude Thaddeus statue (9 in) for your home altar — buying through this link supports our evangelization work, at no extra cost to you.
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