National Shrine of St Jude, Faversham

Faversham and its shrine of St Jude are on the Augustine Camino from Rochester to Ramsgate; sitting to the west of Canterbury, it is a few miles north of the Pilgrims Way

The National Shrine of St Jude is nowhere near as old as Faversham’s Roman-era holy places. But it provides a direct link to the very start of Christianity, to one of Christ’s own Apostles. A relic from the saint’s body is displayed in the chapel here, along with a medieval wooden statue.

Highlights

• Relic and statue of St Jude the Apostle
• National shrine inside Carmelite churchsome text

The shrine of St Jude was opened in 1955 by Father Elias Lynch, leader of a small community of Carmelite monks. The shrine is in a side chapel connected to the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is open to visitors during the day. At its heart is the inner shrine, where the relic and statue are kept. They are separated from the shrine chapel by a security gate, but other than that are easily viewable, on permanent display.

The small relic of St Jude’s holy body can be seen in a glass-fronted reliquary in the middle of the inner shrine. His major relics are in St Peter’s in Rome, from where this relic came.

The reliquary stands in front of a 15th-century wooden sculpture of St Jude, bought in a London antique shop in the 20th century. There is a place to kneel and pray in front of the shrine.

The church promotes and describes its shrine with such reverence it feels as holy as any in England, even though it is relatively recent. The buildings are a treasury of modern devotional art. Almost every surface is decorated with murals, icons, ceramic relief sculptures and stained-glass windows. Some were produced at the nearby Aylesford Priory, another Carmelite institution.

A second pilgrim route now visits the shrine, the Shepherds’ Isle Camino. I visited during the week and the chapel was busy with pilgrims. A woman knelt in prayer the entire time I waited. St Jude is the patron saint of hopeless or difficult causes, a figure one turns to in desperation only.

St Jude was much neglected by the early church. His name is actually St Judas, but a variant spelling is used to distinguish him from his infamous fellow Apostle. He is mentioned twice in the Gospels as one of the Twelve. Both references are brief, Luke 6:16 calling him “Judas son of James”, and John 14:22 “Judas (not Judas Iscariot)”. St Jude has been plucked from obscurity to become Britain’s most accessible Apostle.

The church website describes St Jude as a “common meeting ground between Anglicans and Catholics”, since there was so little historical and cultural interest in him during Christianity’s most difficult years. He is certainly a more productive figure to contemplate than the Reformation martyrs of either side. For that reason alone this shrine deserves the highest recommendation.

Directions

National Shrine of St Jude, Whitefriars,34 Tanners Street, Faversham ME13 7JN

www.stjudeshrine.org.uk

W3W: saying.paths.grub

GPS: 51.3150N 0.8841E

The church is on Tanner Street, a oneway lane near the centre of town. As a sign says, entrance is through a wooden gate on Tanner Street marked with a sign. If you’re in Faversham to see the other holy sites here (listed below), the church is 700m from The Swan in the centre of town. The shrine is open 8:30am daily, closing 6pm Mar–Oct, 4pm Nov–Feb; Mass at 9:30am Monday to Saturday, 10:30am on Sunday.