I'm not a Christian so I could be wrong...

[CurlewKate]

...but is it a little insensitive to tell someone (not me, and not a very close friend so no need for good wishes for me) who is about to have major surgery, that you are praying to St Jude for them?

There used to be many hospitals named St Jude ( in particular I remember a cancer hospital and a women’s hospital) and there’s also a medical devices company named St Jude. So no, I don’t think it’s inappropriate.

Obviously, the person thought they were making a kind gesture from within their faith/personal beliefs. I guess people are more ignorant and unappreciative of such these days. Don’t look for offence where none is meant.

Well I’m now the mother of 3 girls and prey to who ever will listen they don’t do any of the reckless things I did 😂 🙏

I'd like to add, the only one that ever bothered me was someone who was close but pushed themselves away due to their preaching. The others, I took in the spirit it was made, lovely girls/women had very different lives to me, all very church going, no alcohol or any kind of sin Christian (not UK). They never preached, I would occasionally get a prayer card left on my desk or a look when I as a tad hungover, but mainly hand pats and smiles. I did once head to the ladies to find 3 of them in a little prayer group apparently preying for me 😂 I’ve posted about it before.

I was a very angry lapsed Catholic, but I never took offence. They had their beliefs, I had mine. I told them I was happy if they prayed for me as it saved me time. It was a joke I think they took seriously 😬😅

I was brought up Church of Scotland so my knowledge of saints isn't great, but don't they tend to have a, er, broad portfolio?

So yes, I know about praying to St Jude for lost things, but I suppose he may have other things to do, too?

It's St Anthony who's the Patron Saint of Lost Items! St Jude for "Hopeless Cases" 😂😂

Sorry, didn't know how to quote properly..... last para mine

Personally, this is precisely why I'd find it amusing. The humour is two-fold.

If you believe praying has any value whatsoever, why would you bother praying for anything you consider a lost cause? If it's beyond hope, no amount of anything is going to change that. This is inherently funny because it perfectly and concisely sums up both the contradictions inherent in religion, and the total incoherence of religious dogma

It's also funny because mild piss-taking and being overtly offensive to friends is an inherent part of working class Scottish culture and it's recognised as an expression of endearment, so if I was in the same position I would laugh along at being labelled a "lost cause" in much the same way I would if my friend had asked if they could have my stuff if I died on the operating table.

The prayer to Saint Jude that they probably had in mind has nothing to do with the lost causes part of his remit.

This.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am not cross, or angry or offended or any of the other emotions people have attributed to me. I have no problem with people offering prayers. I have never heard of St Jude as being anything but the saint responsible for hopeless cases/lost causes and I thought-and still think-that telling someone about to have a serious but routine operation that they are offering prayers to St Jude is inappropriate and potentially upsetting to her and her family. It's on her FB page where anyone can read it.

I have cancer ...it really did piss he off people telling me they were saying prayers for me

For a start If there was a god why would he give me cancer? Why would he listen to Sheila from the pub ?

All utter nonsense and insensitive

it is not a 'kindness' - it is intrusive and rude when you know someone doesn't believe.

This thread isn't about offering prayers. Happy to join another one on that subject.

Patron Saint of Hospitals, not just lost causes, he has a healing story associated with him. I'd assume this was the intention, but person praying probably would have been wise to explain their choice of Saint, or leave the specifics out of it.

Did anyone ask why they'd chosen to pray to St Jude?

No he's not the patron saint of hospitals. Camillus de Lellis, John of God and Vincent de Paul are the patron saints of hospitals.

He is, according to some sources, the patron saint of hospital workers, but not doctors (Luke, Cosmas and Damian, Pantaleon), surgeons (Cosmas and Damian, Luke, Roch), anaesthetists (Rene Goupil) or nurses (Agatha, Camillus de Lellis, John of God) so I'm not sure how helpful he would be for an operation.

Radiographers or phlebotomists don't appear to have a dedicated saint so he's probably the man for them.

Fair enough. Wikipedia suggests he is, and googling the patron saint of healing brings up an article about St Jude up as the 3rd result, so the intention may still have been along those lines, even if it’s not correct.

More likely to be a poorly executed attempt at kindness than a public announcement of passive-aggressive/malicious prayer.

I had to go to church as a kid (CofE) but never heard of St Jude as patron saint of hopeless cases. I'm aware of St Christopher and St Anthony.

Having googled, I would suggest that St Jude being patron saint of lost causes is a generalisation. See this website for examples shrineofstjude.org/prayer/prayers-to-st-jude/

Prayers for hope, healing, for those suffering from cancer and so on are included. I'm assuming someone who is a devout Catholic would be aware of all these nuances and means to do their absolute best for you, OP.

I say this btw as someone who is a complete atheist, but who is really touched when someone uses their own faith to consider me.

We all know how accurate wikipedia is. I've been known to edit pages to demonstrate to my students why it should not be used as a source.

I found the information on Catholic Online, which I would expect to have a reasonable idea of who has which job. You can find it at https://www.catholic.org/saints/patron.php

Good Shepherd lists all the healing saints and Jude is just listed as Impossible Causes - https://www.goodshepherdmontrose.org/patron-saints-for-healing/ Some of them are really specific. I guess if you have multiple illnesses, you have to pray to multiple saints. Really interesting is for pandemics they have St. Edmund the Martyr and St. Corona. I wonder is Corona newly appointed to the job or did he have it before covid.

Do religions other than Catholicism have saints? Maybe he's double jobbing for another religion as the saint of healing?

I’m not arguing with you about facts, or citing Wikipedia as a source. My point was that if she didn’t know who was best to pray to she could have found information that led her to St Jude, and may have been intending kindness without realising that many people would associate him with lost causes. A mistake rather than malice.

To be honest, I would never assume malice in those circumstances. Thoughtlessness, lack of tact, yes, but not malice unless the person has a track record to suggest otherwise. Generally, I would appreciate someone thinking of me, even though I would be a bit😮at someone invoking Jude in this instance.

However, in my experience, the type of person who prays to a specific saint is not someone who is off googling to see who's the best for a particular job. People who aren't familiar with saints will usually just say they will pray for you. I would assume that, for whatever reason, the person has a particular fondness for Jude and goes to him for everything. My mother is like that with St Anthony. She reckons he will sort the issue out for her even though he generally only deals with finding things that are lost. He's great value too as you only pay him if he delivers.