MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Today, there is a big celebration in Mexico City, the Feast of St. Jude. He's the unofficial saint of the city, and the celebration mixes the holy and the profane. That's because over the years, the Catholic saint for impossible causes has also become the people's saint. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports.
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EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: The night before San Judas Tadeo's feast, tens of thousands of Mexicans parade through his church.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: Most people here have asked him for a miracle, and they promise him something small in return - that they would come sing him "Las Mananitas" on his feast day, that they would gift strangers a piece of candy or give away prayer cards or candles or teeny bouquets of gardenias. And on this day, you see everyone at this church - moms with babies, kids dressed as St. Jude, groups of young people smoking marijuana just outside the church.
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PERALTA: Susana Lara Crisoforo was standing right outside with her daughter, holding a statue of St. Jude. She became a devotee after her uncle was cured from cancer. That was many years ago. She remembers when she arrived at the church, a man gave her a statue.
SUSANA LARA CRISOFORO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "I had so much faith," she said. "The statue just landed in my arms."
There are many beliefs around St. Jude. One is that in order for a prayer to be effective, someone has to gift you a statue. This year, Crisoforo gifted her daughter a statue. It's why she's here on the eve of this feast.
CRISOFORO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: She doesn't elaborate. But she says her daughter had turned to something very ugly, but St. Jude brought her back to the family.
CRISOFORO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Faith in God," she says, "can move mountains."
Miriam Cruz Mejia is an anthropologist who studies popular religion. She says this devotion to St. Jude took off after a massive earthquake destroyed Mexico City in 1985. As Mejia describes it, Mexicans needed miracles, and they needed them fast.
MIRIAM CRUZ MEJIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: Mejia says the cult of St. Jude became a kind of fast food religion. It was accessible and nonjudgmental. Over the years, he became the go-to saint for young people. Now on YouTube, you find hip-hop songs about St. Jude. You find T-shirts that represent him in gold encrusted urban garbs.
MEJIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "In the words of young people," she says, "St. Jude is my homie. He's the one who's with me, the one who spots me."
MEJIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "So the faithful say - St. Jude saved me from the cancer I had. He helped me stop drinking. He kept my wife from knowing I was cheating."
These days, across the city, you find St. Jude in altars alongside the Holy Death, a folk saint representing death who is condemned by the Catholic Church.
MEJIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "They are uber saints," she says, "popular ideas that have been elevated to the altars, not by the church but by the people."
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PERALTA: Back at the church, it feels like a big party. Fireworks explode in the sky. Street vendors sell St. Jude T-shirts, lucky bracelets, amulets. Father Jesus Garcia says he isn't surprised at the popularity of St. Jude.
JESUS GARCIA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "The thing about St. Jude," he says, "is that no matter what people's intentions are, he will always listen." Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANCE THE RAPPER SONG, "CHILD OF GOD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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