St. Jude, a distant relative of Jesus, was called to be one of Jesus’ 12 apostles. He preached the Good News to Jews throughout Judea, Samaria, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Libya. He is depicted with a flame above his head representing his presence at Pentecost with the 12 disciples; this is symbolized by 12 flames in the patterning of this sock. He is also depicted with a medallion with the face of Christ around his neck, coming from a story in which Jesus pressed his face into a cloth and gave it to Jude to take to King Abgar of Edessa who was cured of leprosy and converted to Christianity after seeing the cloth. As the patron of hopeless causes, we’ve included an anchor, the Christian symbol of hope, to remind wearers to entrust seemingly hopeless petitions to this holy saint.
