A Family’s Devotion to Saint Jude

By Kelli Jenney

Kelli Jenney with Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P.

Providence College senior Kelli Jenney has been Dominican educated since kindergarten. She attended high school at St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan and is active in campus ministry at PC, where she assists the friars chaplains. We would like to share with you her family’s remarkable journey of faith.

When my father was in second grade he was diagnosed with polio. It was the early 50’s, so there was no cure or vaccine yet. My grandmother, Philomena, was very faithful and had heard about St. Jude. In Fall River, Massachusetts, not far from their home, was a shrine to St. Jude where a lot of miracles were happening, especially for the sick.

For two years, they traveled to the shrine every Sunday and prayed to Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, for my father’s healing. At this time my father had monthly doctor’s appointments and wore a leg brace.

After two years of prayer, at an appointment on Good Friday, the doctor started crying. My grandmother thought this meant the news was bad and she became really upset. Finally, the doctor stopped crying and said, “It’s a miracle. Your son is cured of polio. There’s no trace of the disease anymore, he’s completely fine.”

My grandmother attributed my father’s recovery to St. Jude, and my whole family has been devoted to St. Jude ever since. My older sister and I both chose St. Jude as our confirmation saint in thanks that our father was able to live. We wouldn’t be here without St. Jude.

Since then, my father has had many encounters with St. Jude. For example, when he was a bus driver in New York City, someone walked onto the bus, handed him a relic of St. Jude, and walked off. There have been many other little reminders for us to stay faithful to St. Jude and to continue to pray to him as our family’s patron saint.

Kelli Jenney’s father as a young boy

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