the ‘Insider’
Many can point to the myriad of incredible candidates.
But he stands out beyond the rest because of his unique position.
It is like discussing Mary; there is no one else who can lay claim to being the Mother of God, therefore, She has no peers.
The same can be said of him.
For he was part of the Holy Family.
He was counted among the Apostles.
And it was he who is the ultimate source of history behind the Holy Shroud.
For his role in the “Mantle of Christ” proves that Sacred Tradition is not only correct, but ordained by God Himself!
The person we are speaking of is the great St. Jude!
Among the “brethren” of the Lord, he grew up with Jesus and Mary in Nazareth.
Jude’s mother, known as Mary Cleophas, is also called the “sister” of the Blessed Virgin, when, in reality, she is Her sister-in-law.
Jude is among those privileged in the Gospel to be called a “brother” of Christ — and as a martyred Apostle, he proved he was more than just a cousin.
But before Jude’s martyrdom, his role is essential to the history of Christianity.
Not only will he be among the few Apostles who writes an Epistle, but it will be Jude who will fulfill a vow of Christ the King.
In this fulfillment is the absolute proof that those who adhere to the theology of “sola scriptura” — the Bible alone — are completely out of touch with the reality of the faith.
For the Truth of this can be found in the early chapters of Christianity as revealed by the first historian of the faith, Bishop Eusebius.
What always fascinates us is how those who espouse the protest-ant belief system must ignore or condemn those who came centuries before them!
Bishop Eusebius documents an important historical find. One might call him the first Christian archaeologist.
As a friend of Constantine the Great (another despised and maligned character by those of the protest-ant persuasion), Eusebius wishes to compile the history of the Church during its underground years before the Edict of Milan.
It is in Edessa, Turkey that he discovers two letters venerated by the local populace.
One from a man named Agbar V.
The other in the Name of One Jesus of Nazareth!
As the letters tell, King Agbar — who is a historically contemporary of Jesus — is suffering from a disease. He has heard of a miracle-worker in Judea who cures people of his malady: leprosy!
Agbar sends a royal messenger to find this Person and bring Him back to the king.
In Jerusalem, the king’s messenger presents Agbar’s letter to Jesus, in which the ruler of Edessa tells our Savior that he hears He can heal the sick, but that His people do not give Him “homage.” Come to my palace, Agbar implores the Lord, and if he is healed, he will share half his kingdom with the Lord!
Jesus responds to the messenger.
Now it is important to note that we, as sindonologists, do not claim that Jesus specifically writes the response by His own Hand.
But if you were a messenger for a king in 33 A.D. and had a 400-mile journey back to your homeland, what would you do with the words spoken to you by the very Man your king wanted to return with you?
Would you not write them down?
This, then, is the second letter the people of Edessa held in veneration that is quoted by Bishop Eusebius.
And Christ’s response, to paraphrase, is simple enough.
“Happy are you Agbar, for you have believed but not seen. But I cannot come to you now. However, I will send one of My disciples and he will cure you and give life to all who are with you.”
If there is any Truth to this story, who could that someone be?
The answer is simple enough: it is St. Jude!
What evidence do we have to make such a bold claim?
It is the scientific evidence incorporated into a cloth known as the Shroud of Turin!
As Catholics, we are readily familiar with the image of St. Jude.
We walk into many a Church and there he is, with the Flame of the Holy Spirit upon his head, walking stick and a medallion around his neck.
And whose Face is on this medallion?
It is, as all recognize Him, the Face of Christ.
Where did Jude Thaddeus, writer of the Epistle of Jude and brethren of the Lord, get this medallion?
It is 33 A.D.
The Lord Jesus has just been Crucified.
Who minted a coin with the Face of our Lord upon it?
The answer is the Image St. Jude is carrying is NOT a coin!
It is NOT a medallion.
It is the “Mandylion” — a Byzantine word used for one object and one object only: Christ’s “Mantle.”
The very cloth we call today, the Shroud of Turin!
For St. Jude is not carrying a medallion but the folded-in-three linen of the cloth that wrapped our Savior’s Body on the Day of Crucifixion and Resurrection!
The cloth that contains the radiated Image of Christ!
And St. Jude will evangelize the 1st-century world with this cloth!
According to Sacred Tradition, St. Jude, under the instructions of “Doubting Thomas,” takes the burial cloth with the Image of our Lord on it to fulfill Christ’s promise to King Agbar V!
As the sacred story tells us, when St. Jude enters King Agbar’s throne room with the Shroud (aka “Mandylion”), an unbearable light breaks out from the cloth, strikes the king and he is healed of his leprosy!
The king of Edessa (which is now known under its moslem name of Urfa) gets up and walks for the first time in years!
Agbar becomes the first king in history to embrace Christian beliefs.
Many historians mistakenly tell their secular audience that this honor falls to Constantine the Great.
The story of Agbar V shows how wrong these self-proclaimed “experts” are!
In fact, Edessa will become the first Christian “state” and the cloth will remain in the city until 944 A.D., when the Byzantines rescue it from the iconoclastic moslems!
This is the 1st-millennium history of the cloth, something the critics of the Shroud do not want the world to know!
There are some who claim that “the origins of devotion to St. Jude as the patron of desperate or hopeless cases are nearly as obscure as details of the life of the great Apostle” (National Shrine of St. Jude, Chicago, Illinois).
But it is not.
The origins can be found easily when one studies the scientific realities of the Shroud.
For the pollen evidence confirms the historic and Sacred Traditions of the great Apostle St. Jude.
Everywhere the Saint went, pollen from plants indigenous only to those areas was discovered on the cloth. Discovered by those who had no comprehension as to the significance of their findings. A fact that escapes most sindonologists who do not follow the Catholic faith and are unaware of Sacred Traditions.
Among those pollens are those that can only be found in Edessa (Urfa), Turkey. A place which others believe might even be the birthplace of Abraham!
Wouldn’t that be just like our Lord?
A God who loves mystery, yet, at the same time, if one truly believes, displays a repeating pattern which is revealed as the Lord uses various “origins of devotion” over and over again.
A devotion to the Shroud in which He began by first having His Mother wrap Him in it.
Then having a member of His Holy Family carry it.
As we remember the simple fact that St. Jude is “the patron of desperate or hopeless cases,” we must remember why he can secure these incredible favors from our God.
If the Lord refuses to grant the beloved Apostle’s intercession, St. Jude can remind our God that it was he who carried His miraculous Shroud from Jerusalem to heal King Agbar, ensuring the safety of the cloth for eight centuries!
Indeed, if that fails, the “patron of desperate or hopeless cases” has an unbeatable alternative: to turn to the Woman who wrapped Her Son in this cloth and cry out as he did whenever he needed assistance as an “inside” member of the Holy Family:
“Aunt Mary, help!”
And, as a cousin of Jesus, St. Jude, patron of “desperate or hopeless cases,” can ensure he is on the inside track by asking “Uncle Joseph” to oversee that the Lord acquiesces to the requests of “Aunt Mary” on his behalf!
San Judas, ora pro nobis!
© 2003 Agnus Dei Presents!
the sacred Mandylion!
