I celebrate my birthday on the same day as the Feast of St. Jude Thaddeus, who is known as the patron saint for those facing desperate and hopeless situations. Each year on October 28th, which also marks the anniversary of the saint’s death, I have made it a personal tradition to attend the Feast Novena Mass at the National Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus. This significant place of worship is situated in San Miguel, Manila, close to Malacañan Palace, the official residence and office of the President of the Philippines.

Due to the significant growth of the Chinese community during that era, the existing Binondo Church, which was the sole Chinese parish in Manila at the time, was deemed inadequate. Consequently, in 1954, the Archdiocese of Manila established St. Jude Thaddeus Church as one of the Chinese parishes to better accommodate the needs of the expanding Chinese community.

While initially intended to serve exclusively the Chinese and Chinese Filipinos, St. Jude Parish expanded its scope on June 20, 1986, and transformed into a territorial parish. As part of this transition, it assumed responsibility for the adjacent areas, encompassing four barangays that were previously under the jurisdiction of San Miguel Parish.

The weekly novena to St. Jude began in June 1959 and has been held every Thursday since then. I still remember attending the novena when I was about to take my licensure exam. This has been a practice of those who will take board examinations wherein their pencils were blessed with the Holy water.

Due to the significant number of people participating in the weekly novena every Thursday, the church was granted the designation of Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Jude on June 21, 1994. Furthermore, in February 2010, the shrine was further elevated to the status of a national shrine through a decree of establishment issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.