Hope is coming to the area this week in the form of a relic of St. Jude Thaddeus that has been touring the country for the last 15 months, touching the lives of almost 2 million people in that time. “Jude is the patron saint of hope, and right now the world needs hope. America needs hope,” said the Rev. Carols Martins, director of treasures of the church for nearly 28 years and the relic’s custodian during the tour, adding that “it was thought this was a very good time for him to make an apostolic pilgrimage.” “We are coming off a very debilitating pandemic, the effects of which are around us still,” losing loved ones, their life savings and businesses,” he explained. “Many, many are suffering the effects of social distancing, the isolation, which left deep wounds in many people.” The relic may be venerated Nov. 20 at Incarnation St. Terrence Catholic Parish, 5757 W. 127th St., Crestwood; Nov. 21 at Queen of Apostles Church, 18 Woodlawn Ave., Joliet; Nov. 22 at St. Mary Roman Catholic Parish, 19515 115th Ave., Mokena, with a special Mass at 6:30 p.m.; and. Nov. 25 at St. Paul Catholic Church, 1855 W. Harrison Blvd., Valparaiso, Indiana. The relic will be viewable from 2 to 10 p.m. at each stop with a special Mass at 7 p.m. It was on display at the beginning of the tour, Sept. 13, 2023, at St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church in Tinley Park. On Friday, it was at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Naperville. Once the tour ends just before Christmas, the relic will go back to its resting place in Rome. “This is the first time it has left Italy in 1,700 years – since it was taken to Italy by Constantine the emperor,” Martins said. It’s unclear where St. Jude was martyred and buried, but he believes that happened in what’s now Beirut, Lebanon. St. Jude is believed to be Christ’s first cousin and was one of his twelve apostles. His tomb now is in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. A portion of his arm was removed several centuries ago and put into a wooden reliquary carved in the shape of an arm bestowing a blessing, where it has remained ever since. “Although we have no idea with certainty where the martyrdom occurred or where he was buried, we do know with 100% certainty that they are the bones of the apostle,” Martins added. “We don’t have to know those locations. The ancient world knew. That information has not survived to the present day, but Constantine knew and he exhumed the graves that were directly beneath the church and the remains were taken to Rome 1,700 years ago.” Staff and parishioners at St. Mary, which has been in Mokena since 1864, are thrilled the relic is coming to their parish. “This is an extremely high honor. The relic of St. Jude is – I hate to put one saint over the other – but St. Jude is one of the apostles of Christ,” said Erica Sestak, assistant director to the clergy. “Jude was one of the people who knew him on Earth. To be able to host this relic is to have another connection to Christ and to ask for a saint’s intercession who was friends with Christ.” She called it “a blessing that something of this magnitude” is coming to St. Mary and takes it as a sign that “God is watching over St. Mary’s. We’ve always known that.” Sestak said parishioners “are excited and are telling their friends, telling their families and we do hope this will help bring people to St. Mary’s and help bring people to church who haven’t been in a while or are interested in the Catholic faith and this will pique their interest.” The Rev. Dindo Billote stands inside St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in Mokena, where the relic of St. Jude will be available to be venerated Nov. 22. An entrance on the west side of the church allows people with disabilities quicker access. (Erica Sestak) The Rev. Dindo Billote also is pleased the tour includes his church. “I am so overjoyed that St. Mary was chosen to participate in this visitation of St. Jude’s relic,” he said in a news release. “St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes, brings hope in prayer for miracles!” While at St. Mary, the relic will be on display on the altar or by one of the statues to allow parishioners and neighboring parishes to venerate it “in a place of honor,” Sestak said. “Father Billote mentions ‘God moments.’ It’s definitely a God moment where God is blessing St. Mary’s and showing that we’re on track. … This relic is another way to bring people to God, bring people to Christ, but also showing that we’re doing things right.” She knows the saint’s power firsthand. “I have prayed to St. Jude and he has helped me, he’s helped my family, and I know of other parishioners who have prayed to St. Jude for intercession with cancer treatments and they are in remission. Having this saint who helped people I know and even my own family – it’s going to be a real blessing and will be extremely special.” Accompanying the relic on tour is just one task for Martins. “I plan and oversee the tours that are conducted worldwide,” he said. “I give teachings to the pilgrims who view the relics and plan the logistics of the travel.” He also runs “The Exorcist Files,” a weekly podcast that features dramatic reenactments and commentary of actual cases as part of his work as an exorcist. “It’s one of the most popular podcasts in the world in the religion and spirituality sphere,” he said. Martins described relics as “any physical object that has a physical connection with a saint.” They can be divided into classes. “First class relics are the body or any fragment of a body of a saint, such as a bone or hair. Second class relics are anything a saint owns such as an item of clothing or a book. Third class relics are any objects touched by a saint or touched to a first, second or third class relic of a saint.” Brochures and other information, on display on a tour stop at St. Jude Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, accompanly the relic of St. Jude on its and will be available for purchase in churches where the relic is displayed. The relic’s custodian on the tour, the Rev. Carlos Martins, hosts a podcast titled “The Exorcist Files,” and will discuss that as well. (St. Jude Catholic Church) The tour requires a truck pulling a trailer with about 6,000 pounds of cargo, he said, thanks to the reliquary and all the material associated with the ministry. The reliquary that houses the bone itself is about 20 inches tall, and the larger reliquary that houses that container is 5 feet high and 2.5 feet wide. Pilgrims are allowed to touch the larger reliquary, which is bulletproof and extraordinarily heavy, Martins said. Different things may happen when people are in the presence of the relic. “They really experience the touch of the saint. Some experience an odor. Some people hear something – church bells ringing or just like a wind. They describe a kind of phenomena where the senses are made evident to some reality that the people around them are not.” He hopes the relic will inspire people. “I want people to experience the touch of heaven,” he shared. “Every time relics are mentioned in the Bible, every single time, two things will occur. There is always a healing. There is never not a healing.” He said touch is how healings come about, “not because relics are magical, but because the entire saint is present in his or her relic,” Martins explained. “And the work of relics in terms of the healing, a prophecy of our Lord is fulfilled. He declares ‘Greater works than what I do, you will do,” and the prophecy will be fulfilled. What is visible only as a fragment of the saint is able to accomplish that work.” Martins noted that healings happen every day. “Some of them are absolutely dramatic — stage 4 cancer healings. Many people are not even present but they are invoked in front of the saint and the saint is asked to intercede for them. I had a morning when I woke and there were three messages of healing: stage 4 cancer, a massive heart attack and someone being kept alive by life support and with a brain injury. He was brain dead and he was completely healed.” Information about the relic and the tour’s schedule can be found at apostleoftheimpossible.com.