Noreen Edwards from Owosso, Michigan, had brain surgery 22 years ago that left her chronically tired, depressed and, largely, confined to bed. That all changed last month after her husband, Doug, prayed with a relic of Saint Jude and requested heavenly intercession for his long-suffering wife.
“I believe in miracles, I always had, I recognize them in the air that we breathe but I still didn't expect a miracle and I got it and it just moves me,” said Noreen upon a visit to the relic of Saint Jude at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church in East Lansing, October 12.
“There are friends at church that are dazed and amazed to see how my life has changed…. I'm so grateful to Saint Jude. I'm brought to tears when I get up there [to venerate his relic] and I'll thank him and thank him and I'll continue to thank him and pray to him every day.”
Noreen’s husband, Doug, owns a printing business in Owosso. He had generously offered to print large catechetical banners to accompany the “Apostle of the Impossible” tour of Saint Jude’s relic which is currently traveling around the United States.
When the tour organizer, Father Carlos Martins, came to Owosso to pick up the banners last month he brought the Saint Jude relic with him. He had hoped to pray with Noreen but was informed by Doug that she was having “a bad day” and was unable to receive visitors.
“So, I just I turned to Jude and said to him: ‘Doug and his wife are my friends and I need you to do something’,” recalled Father Martins.
The next day Doug came home to find Noreen preparing lunch, something she had not been able to do for years. He immediately phoned Father Martins.
“I just remember the haunting scream that Doug yelled over the phone and he said: ‘my wife is darting about the house like a young girl’.”
Saint Jude is generally regarded as being the son of Mary of Clopas who, in turn, is regarded as the sister or sister-in-law of the Blessed Virgin Mary and one of the “three Marys” who stood by Jesus during His Crucifixion. That would make Saint Jude Christ’s cousin. Jude is also one of the most venerated figures in Christian history and is often regarded as the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations.
Doug says the sudden and dramatic reversal in his wife’s long-terms ailments “took the feet from underneath” him.
“She's back! She's herself again and it just seems just incredibly wonderful,” exclaimed Doug.
“It’s almost like we're newlyweds again because it's just so fresh and new and clean and beautiful.”
The tour of Saint Jude’s relic around the United States saw it visit the Diocese of Lansing earlier this month with stops at Saint Patrick in Brighton, Saint Francis of Assisi in Ann Arbor and Saint Thomas Aquinas in East Lansing. It was there Noreen finally got to meet Saint Jude.
“This woman who had suffered for over two decades is now set free,” said Father Martins.
“And that, for us, needs to be a sign, that there is a wonderful hope that we can place in the saints, that Heaven is open to us, that Heaven wants to be part of our lives and desires us, even in this life, to experience it.”