St. Jude Thaddeus : relative, apostle and martyr of Our Lord Jesus Christ

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&t. lube's apostolate

UNE 1, 1935, witnessed the official yet inauspicious
inception of The City of St. Jude, on Holt Street in
Montgomery, Alabama. The Most Reverend Thomas J.
Toolen, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Mobile, dedicated
and blessed a rented dwelling in a poor Negro section of
Montgomery. He officially placed this new born work,
the care and the advancement of the Negro, under the
patronage of St. Jude, Apostle and Helper in cases de-
spaired of.

More than a year prior to this dedication, several lay
pioneers settled in Montgomery to initiate an appeal for
prayers and funds in order to locate living quarters and
to establish a dispensary for the care of the sick. Father
Harold Purcell, missionary, orator, and writer "founder
of Sign Magazine" who gave birth to this idea, resigned
his editorship of "Sign" and came to Montgomery in the
Spring of 1935.

By appealing to his host of friends throughout this
country and Canada, Father Harold was able to open
a dispensary attached to this dwelling on Holt Street.
Through this dispensary literally thousands of Colored
people were cared for, very many of whom had never
seen a doctor or nurse in their lives and who were suffer-
ing from all forms of disease, some curable, other in-
curable.

A small chapel was connected with the Holt Street
House where the priests were able to offer the Holy
Sacrifice and where the Negro folks came for instruc-
tion in the saving truths of our Holy Religion. There was
never any great rush of converts as in some northern
cities, but the priests were able to baptize a substantial
nucleus of Colored folks and Father Purcell began to
think of building a Church for them.

In 1936, a fine tract of land on Fairview Avenue, con-
sisting of about forty acres, was purchased by Father
Purcell for literally a song. It was just farm land but
convenient to the Negro residential section of the city
By 1938, a very beautiful Church was erected on this
site which is still in use today. This is our beautiful
Shrine of St. Jude where so many thousands of Holy
Masses and prayers have been and still are being offered
for our benefactors both living and dead. Our bene-
factors are the ones who have built The City of St. Jude
St. Jude's Church and Shrine was dedicated on October
28, 1938, by The Most Reverend T. J. Toolen. The sermon
on the occasion was preached by Reverend Cornelius
Ahearn, a priest from the Newark Archdiocese and a life
long friend of Father Harold's.

The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth from
Chicago volunteered their services to teach the Negro
children and thus began their arduous task in the fall of
1938. Part of the Church basement was used as a
convent and the front portion was given over to school
rooms. The school is the great work of all our Negro
missions. The parents are contacted by means of the
younger generation and many good converts are made in
this way. After a number of years in school under the
good Sisters, many of our children have become good
Catholics and many have gone into higher education to
prepare themselves to become leaders among our south-
ern Colored people.

After the erection of the Church, Father Purcell erect-
ed the present Convent and Social Center. The school
Sisters have comfortable quarters upstairs and down-
stairs was given over to a dispensary. One of the Sisters
of Nazareth, a registered nurse, operated the dispensary
and others of these good nuns, when not teaching, dis-
tributed used clothing and nourishing meals to the poor
children.

After the nuns moved into their Convent, Father
Harold lived in the basement of the Church for many
years. He had a very simple room and allowed himself
no luxuries. It was not until the erection of St. Jude's
Hospital in 1951, only a year before he died, that Father

Harold had any of the comforts of life. He gave al
to his beloved Negro people and was satisfied to live 01 j
the crumbs that remained.

The number of children in the school increased yea
by year and became so large that even tho Worlc
War II was in progress, Father Harold went ahead anc
built St. Jude's Educational Institute. In this large build-
ing, the gift of the ever faithful benefactors, six hundred
children are being educated and prepared to become
good useful children of Holy Church and of our beloved
country.

Father Harold's aproach to the Negro mind anc
heart was along the lines followed by Our Blessed Lord
Himself. Our Lord was chiefly concerned about souls
but we must never forget that He was also concerned
about bodies. He made His approach to men and women
by a systematic understanding of their difficulties, worries,
and troubles. The good He went about doing was
primarily directed to the alleviation of human misery.
It seems, in fact, that His method was to heal the body
before saving the soul. So the establishment of a
modern, up-to-date hospital for the Negro was ever para-
mount in the mind of Father Harold. Calling once more
upon his noble band of benefactors, he collected enough
money to begin St. Jude's Catholic Hospital. This fine
building, most modern in design, has 172 beds and all
the other facilities which go to make up the modern hos-
pital. The Vincentian Sisters of Charity from Perrysville,
Pennsylvania, staff the hospital. Since June 1, 1951,
many thousands of our poor people have been admitted
and most of them, but of course, not all, have been dis-
charged as cured. For probably the first time in this
part of the South, Negro and white physicians work
together and aid one another in St. Jude's Hospital.
Only God knows the good, both spiritual and temporal
that has been done within its walls since 1951.

Father Purcell was invalided and in a wheel chair for
about a year but he was around and about, his mind
acute and sharp. F..ially, on the morning of October
22, 1952, he was stricken by a heart attack. He re-
ceived the last sacraments with edifying piety and on

the afternoon of the same day was taken to his eternal
reward.

Father Purcell's successor, Father John Raleigh, a vete-
ran of many years among the Negro people in Pensa-
cola, Florida, and a former assistant to Father Harold
at the old Holt Street beginning, came to St. Jude in
November, 1952. His one object had been to carry on
according to the mind of Father Harold. The last project
that Father Harold had given his attention to was the
founding of a crippled children's hospital. We now
have the new Father Harold Purcell Memorial Hospital
for Crippled Children which was solemnly dedicated by
Archbishop Toolen on January 12, 1958. It is a very
beautiful and modern building with rooms for 75 children
and the latest in Physiotherapy equipment. We ask
the aid of our kind benefactors to help us support this
great charity.

Father John Raleigh recognizing the axiomatic truth —
a sound mind in a healthy body — planned on the erec-
tion of a gymnasium, so sorely needed today where the
only play space appears to be in the streets.

Before he could see this venture materialize, Father
Raleigh was struck with cancer. For seven months he
wasted away until October 1, 1961, our Blessed Lord
called him to his eternal reward. Surrounded by his
good Sisters in the hospital, his priests and parishoners,
Father Raleigh died a beautiful death amidst the recita-
tion of the rosary and litany for the dying.

His successor as Director of The City of St. Jude is
Father Paul Mullaney, who was an assistant at St.
Jude's under Monsignor Raleigh from 1952 to 1958. It
is his intention to carry on the minds of both Father Harold
and Father Raleigh in the spiritual, educational, and
physical betterment of the Negro people.

I ask our good benefactors in the name of St. Jude,
in the name of the pioneer laity, sisters, and priests, who
have labored here, to please continue your assistance
so that in this field white for the harvest at The City of
St. Jude, we will be pleased to present our Divine Lord
with a most generous crop.

(But OTorfe

We all know that the Negro is very often the victim
of race prejudice. He is handicapped by his color
in trying to get even a decent living. There are some
bad Negroes and there are some bad whites. But the
vast majority of Negroes are good, simple and sincere
persons. They are worthy of all the help we can give
them. To allow ourselves to be prejudiced against
them just because they are Negroes is to be untrue to
our Catholic Faith, which teaches us that we are all
children of God and members of the Mystical Body of
Christ. Let us work together in carrying on a great
Negro Apostolate among the 15 millions of our Colored
here in the United States, who are a real foreign mission
right at our very door.

To carry on this Apostolate here in Alabama where
the proportion of Colored to white is about 50-50 is the
work of the five priests, 22 Vincentian Sisters of Charity
and about 100 nurses and lay workers here at The City
of St. Jude — Montgomery, Alabama.

May we commend our work to the prayers of every
reader of these lines. May we ask them to reinforce
their prayers by making some financial sacrifice, even
tho small, to help these "poorest of God's poor" the
neglected black brothers and sisters of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, who live in our midst in our own United States
of America.

Sntroiiucmg ftt $vtot

Saint of the Impossible: Helper in Desperate Cases
T. JUDE THADDEUS is one of the Twelve Apostles.
In his Catholic Epistle he styles himself "Jude the
servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James." As "serv-
ant of Jesus Christ" he meant that he is an "apostolic
minister or laborer." As brother of James, he was a
blood relative of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

It is not known when and by what means St. Jude
became a follower of our Lord. The Holy Gospels are

silent about him until we find him mentioned as one
of the Twelve Apostles. At the Last Supper, when Christ
promised to reveal Himself to His hearers, St. Jude asked
Him why He did not manifest Himself to the rest of the
world. Christ answered that He would visit all those
who love Him and admit them to intimate communica-
tions of Divine grace.

With the other Apostles, St. Jude received all the
miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pente-
cost, but after that day we have very little information
of his life and work. There are well founded traditions
that he preached the Faith in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea
and Mesopotamia. According to the traditions of the
Western Church, on the completion of his apostolate in
Mesopotamia, St. Jude was joined by another Apostle,
St. Simon, and the two spent some years together as
missionaries in Persia, where they were both martyred
in a place called Suanir. In the Church calendar their
feast is kept jointly on October 28.

St. Jude is usually represented as holding a club and
a book. The club is indicative of his martyrdom, as he
was clubbed to death for his fidelity to Jesus Christ. The
book represents the Epistle he wrote to the early Chris-
tians and is now part of the New Testament.

From time immemorial St. Jude has been invoked as
the "Saint of the Impossible" and "Helper in Cases
Despaired Of." To his powerful intercession with God
have been attributed countless miracles of material
blessings and spiritual graces. It was for this reason we
chose St. Jude as our special helper when we started
our work for the poor Colored and put it under his
patronage. The Saint has aided us beyond our wildest
dream. He has brought us many friends and benefac-
tors. And he has blessed these same friends and bene-
factors in giving them tangible and immediate help.
Hardly a day goes by that we do not receive at least
one letter thanking us for having "introduced the writer
to the good and great St. Jude." We most sincerely
urge all readers of these lines to pray earnestly to
St. Jude for their various needs in the firm hope that
he will hear their prayers and grant their requests.

ERE in the City of St. Jude we are operating a
spiritual powerhouse of Mass, Communion and
Prayer for the special benefit of our good friends and
benefactors. To be listed among these, please send
us your names and intentions to be placed on St.
Jude's altar.

jSobena to &t Jube

g NOVENA is a devotion performed for nine con-
secutive days or nine other consecutive periods.
To make a novena properly one should go to Confession
and receive Holy Communion. One should also have
great confidence in God and in the intercession of the
Saint in whose honor the novena is made.

x
©

N THE Name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

LESSED be the Holy and undivided Trinity now and
forever. Am^n.

^T^E FLY to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God.
vl/ Despise not our petitions in our necessities, but
deliver us from all dangers, O ever Glorious and Blessed
Virgin.

T. JUDE, pray for us and for all who trust in thee
and invoke thy aid.

O GLORIOUS APOSTLE, ST. JUDE THADDEUS, true
relative of Jesus and Mary, I salute thee through
the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Through this Heart I
praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed
upon thee. Humbly prostrate before thee, I implore thee
through this Heart to look down upon me with com-
passion. Oh, despise not my poor prayer; let not my
trust be confounded! To thee God has granted the
privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases.
Oh, come to my aid, that I may praise the mercies of

God! All my life I will be grateful to thee and will be
thy faithful client until I can thank thee in Heaven.
Amen.

©LESSED Apostle, with confidence we invoke
thee!

Blessed Apostle, with confidence we invoke thee!
Blessed Apostle, with confidence we invoke thee!
ST. JUDE, help of the hopeless, aid me in my distress!
ST. JUDE, help of the hopeless, aid me in my distress!
ST. JUDE, help of the hopeless, aid me in my distress!

QRAY for us that, before death, we may expiate all
our sins by sincere repentance and the worthy
reception of the holy sacraments.

Pray for us that we may appease the Divine Justice and

obtain a favorable judgement.
Pray for us, that we may be admitted into the company

of the Blessed to rejoice in the presence of our

God forever.

Y7*AMB OF God, Who takest away the sins of the

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,

have mercy on us, O Lord.

QLORIOUS Apostle, Martyr and Relative of Jesus,
ST. JUDE THADDEUS, who didst spread the true
Faith among the most barbarous and distant nations;
who didst win to the obedience of Jesus Christ many
tribes and peoples by the power of His holy word, grant,
I beseech thee, that from this day I may renounce every
sinful habit, that I may be preserved from all evil
thoughts, that I may always obtain thy assistance,
particularly in every danger and difficulty, and that I
may safely reach the heavenly country, with thee, to
adore the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and
Holy Ghost, forever and ever, Amen.

(To be said in great affliction, or when one seems to
be deprived of all visible help.)

LET US PRAY

draper tn trials

OST holy Apostle, ST. JUDE, faithful servant and
friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who de-
livered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies
has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the
Church honors and invokes thee universally as the
patron of hopeless cases — of things despaired of.
Pray for me who am so miserable; make use, I implore
thee, of that particular privilege accorded to thee, to
bring visible and speedy help where help is almost
despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need
that I may receive the consolations and succor of
Heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings,
particularly (here make your request) and that I may
bless God with thee and all the elect forever.

I promise thee, O blessed ST. JUDE, to be ever
mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to
honor thee as my special and powerful patron and to
do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee.

draper tn Affliction

OST. JUDE THADDEUS, thou relative of Jesus Christ,
thou glorious apostle and martyr, renowned for
thy virtues and miracles, faithful and prompt intercessor
of all who honor thee and trust in thee! Thou art a
powerful patron and helper in grievous afflictions. I
come to thee and entreat thee from the depths of my
heart; come to my aid with thy powerful intercession,
for thou hast received from God the privilege to assist
with thy manifest help those who almost despair of all
hope. Look down upon me; my life is a life of crosses,
my days are days of tribulation, and my heart is an
ocean of bitterness. All my paths are strewn with
thorns and scarcely one moment passes, but is witness
of my tears and sighs. And withal, my soul is enveloped
in darkness; disquietude, discouragement, mistrust, yes,
sometimes even a kind of despair preys upon my soul.
Divine Providence seems lost to my sight, and faith seems
to falter in my heart. Overwhelmed by these thoughts,
I see myself surrounded by a dark cloud. Thou canst

not forsake me in this sad plight. I will not depart from
thee until thou hast heard me. Oh! hasten to my aid.
I will be grateful to thee all my life. I will honor thee as
my special patron, I will thank God for the graces be-
stowed upon thee, and will propogate thy honor according
to my power. Amen.

g>t J ube'sf JfWastf Heague

OBJECT: The object of the League is to assist
spiritually all those who contribute financial aid to
the evangelization of the Colored Race under the
direction of the Saint Jude Apostolate in the Diocese of
Mobile, Alabama.

©ENEFITS: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered
every day at our beautiful Shrine of St. Jude for
both the Living and Deceased members of the League.
They are remembered in twenty-five Masses offered
every day of the year. A solemn Novena of Masses
is offered for their intentions during the months of
March, October and December and they also share
in all the prayers, works and tribulations of the priests,
sisters and colored people at the City of St. Jude.

CHE Stipend for Annual Individual Enrollment is
$1.00; Perpetual Individual Enrollment is $10.00;
Family Enrollment in Perpetuity is $50.00. The offerings
for Perpetual Enrollment may be made in installments
to suit the convenience of the Donor. A beautiful
Diploma of Aggregation will be forwarded immediately
upon receipt of final payment.

NOTE: Membership in St. Jude's Mass League is an admirable way
of solacing our dear dead. Our own membership in the League insures
spiritual aid during life and after death.

YOUR WILL

IT has been well said that it is a poor will which
does not contain the name of Our Lord among the
heirs. In making your will, please remember St. Jude's
Hospital. Our legal title is:

THE CITY OF ST. JUDE, INC.

a corporation created by and existing under the laws
of the State of Alabama.

Other copies of this pamphlet will be
sent free on request addressed to:

FATHER PAUL MULLANEY
THE CITY OF ST. JUDE,
MONTGOMERY 8, ALABAMA

TO BE NOTED

HATEVER money you have you owe to God.
He gave you health, the talent and the time to
earn it. You are unworthy of your money unless you
show your gratitude to God for it by giving back
some of it to Him in the person of His poor. >^< You
have no obligation to give anything to St. Jude's Hos-
pital. Whatever you give is given freely and with a
good heart. That is why we appreciate it all the more
and earnestly pray God to reward your charity
abundantly.